“What did you do in the Great War, Daddy?”
“Well, when I wasn’t fighting Johnny Bulgar I dressed up as a lady … it was a tough job, but someone ‘ad to do it!”
A speculative conversation, but soldiers did have to dress up as women to play female roles in the various concert parties and theatrical troupes that provided much needed entertainment for the BSF. Looking through The Mosquito – the journal of the Salonika Reunion Association (available on DVD!) – I discovered that one, at least, continued with his ‘drag’ act after the war.
Issue number 4 (December 1928) contains an account of the SRA’s parade, held on Horse Guards Parade on 30 September 1928, followed by a dinner, tea and concert. The article includes the following photo of ‘Mr Jean Perry – The first female impersonator in the Salonika Army’ who took a part in the proceedings.
Jean Perry – looking not unlike Jack Lemmon in the 1959 film ‘Some Like it Hot’!
And this is not the last we hear of Jean Perry. Several years later, he starts advertising in The Mosquito.
Jean Perry’s advert in issue 12 (December 1930):
? ? JEAN PERRY ? ?
The First Female Impersonator in the Balkans. You have seen and heard him at the Annual Reunion Concerts. Why not book him for YOUR Concert or Dinner ? – Write 553 Alexandra Park Road, N.22.
Mr Perry may well have felt the need to place a small ad in The Mosquito because, in spite of being ‘seen and heard … at the Annual Reunion Concerts’ he is not named in the list of artistes in the report on the 1930 reunion in the same issue. Mr Perry placed the same advert in issue 14 (June 1931), which is when things turned ugly! The following letter also appeared in that issue:
DEAR MR. EDITOR, – The recent production of “Dick Whittington” by the 85th Club brings to mind that “Jean Perry” advertises as the First Female Impersonator in the Balkans. I beg to differ – the original part of “Alice” in Dick Whittington was played and I venture to say with immense success by Corpl. Dillon of 85th Field Ambulance on Xmas Day, 1915. What date was Jean Perry’s first appearance?
Yours sincerely, H. W. H. CANHAM, 21 Hogarth Road, S.W.5.
And here is Corporal Dillon as Alice with Frank Kenchington, who had his script for Dick Whittington published – with this photo – in Salonika in February 1916.
85th Field Ambulance, in the form of The 85th Club, certainly had a strong presence in the SRA, indeed, in the issue of The Mosquito where Jean Perry first appeared there was an advertisement for their forthcoming production of Aladdin – first performed at Kopriva in 1916 – at London’s Guildhall School of Music Theatre in February 1929, with the opening night performance reserved for SRA members. I have a programme from the show, which tells us that – apart from Widow Twankey, played by Stewart Bramall, there was no longer any need for chaps in frocks and all the female roles were played by ‘real girls’! I couldn’t help noticing that Mr H. W. H. Canham, who penned the above letter, played Abanazar (A Terrible Turk). He was also the 85th Club’s representative with the SRA and organised the SRA reunion concerts. Maybe that’s why Jean Perry lost that particular gig!
Whatever the case, the trail goes cold after 1931. Jean Perry disappears from the small ads and I am yet to find a response to Mr Canham’s letter in the pages of The Mosquito. So we will probably never know who was the first female impersonator in the Salonika Army!
If you know which concert party Jean Perry performed with in Salonika, please let me know.
Corporal Edward J. Dillon, RAMC, as Alice in 85th Field Ambulance’s 1915 pantomime, ‘Dick Whitington’; a watercolour by C. H. B. Jaques who wrote several songs for the show.
Salonika Campaign Society, 1915-1918 
My thanks go to Dr Martina Lipton – whose excellent article on the 26th Divisional theatre company is in NM48 – for providing more information about Jean Perry.
The March 1940 issue of The Mosquito contains the continuation of a fascinating series entitled ‘The Songs We Sang in Salonika’, which gives details of various concert parties and their shows from programmes sent in by readers. Jean Perry was to be found in The Clickety Clicks, the concert party of 66th Infantry Brigade (22nd Division) where he is listed as ‘Miss Jean Perry’, alongside ‘Miss Dorothy Turner’.
Most of 22nd Division arrived in theatre in November 1915, so it’s entirely likely that The Clickety Clicks performed over Christmas 1915 at the same time as 85th Field Ambulance put on ‘Dick Whittington’, with Corporal Dillon as Alice. And surely other concert parties were doing their bit that festive season, so maybe Jean Perry was just one of many ‘first female impersonators’ with the Salonika Army!