Winifred
Emms (4 April 1883 – 28 September 1972),[1]
best known by her
stage
name Hetty King, was an
English
entertainer who played in the
music
halls over a period of 70 years. Queer Places:
17 Palmerston Rd, Wimbledon, London SW19, UK
Golders Green Crematorium
Golders Green, London Borough of Barnet, Greater London, England
Winifred
Emms (4 April 1883 – 28 September 1972),[1]
best known by her
stage
name Hetty King, was an
English
entertainer who played in the
music
halls over a period of 70 years.
Emms was born in New Brighton, a seaside resort in Cheshire, and performed with her father on the beach in a company of minstrels.
Emms adopted the name Hetty King when she first appeared on the stage of the Shoreditch Theatre,[2] at the age of six with her father, William Emms (1856–1954), a comedian who used the stage name of Will King. For the week commencing 10 December 1904 she topped the programme at the newly opened (by 10 days) Empire-Hippodrome in Ashton-under-Lyne, billed as "The Society Gem". It was her first of many appearances at this theatre, part of the Broadhead circuit.[3] By 1905, she was appearing in music halls, with her solo act, as a male impersonator, often dressed as a "swell". Her career spanned both World Wars when she performed in the uniform of either a soldier or a sailor. In the First World War her act included, in 1916, "Songs the soldiers sing" in which she sang some of the less ribald songs invented by soldiers in the trenches.
She also played the "principal boy" in many pantomimes. She continued to entertain until the end of her life, touring with the show Thanks for the Memory.
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Hetty King (Winifred Emms)
by Richard Brown, published by Rotary Photographic Co Ltd
bromide postcard print, 1900s
4 3/4 in. x 3 1/8 in. (120 mm x 78 mm) image size
Bequeathed by David Dean, 1976
Photographs Collection
NPG x19146
Hetty King (Winifred Emms)
published by Rotary Photographic Co Ltd
bromide postcard print, circa 1905
5 3/8 in. x 3 3/8 in. (137 mm x 87 mm) overall
Bequeathed by Patrick O'Connor, 2010
Photographs Collection
NPG Ax160072
Hetty King (Winifred Emms)
published by Rotary Photographic Co Ltd
bromide postcard print, circa 1906
5 3/8 in. x 3 3/8 in. (136 mm x 85 mm) overall
Bequeathed by Patrick O'Connor, 2010
Photographs Collection
NPG Ax160067
Hetty King (Winifred Emms) as Aladdin
published by Rotary Photographic Co Ltd
bromide postcard print, circa 1906
5 3/8 in. x 3 1/2 in. (138 mm x 88 mm) overall
Bequeathed by Patrick O'Connor, 2010
Photographs Collection
NPG Ax160069
Hetty King (Winifred Emms)
by Henry Joseph Whitlock, published by The Philco Publishing Co
bromide postcard print, circa 1906
5 1/2 in. x 3 1/2 in. (139 mm x 89 mm) overall
Bequeathed by Patrick O'Connor, 2010
Photographs Collection
NPG Ax160070
Hetty King (Winifred Emms) in 'Boy Blue'
published by Rotary Photographic Co Ltd
bromide postcard print, circa 1909
5 1/2 in. x 3 1/2 in. (140 mm x 88 mm) overall
Bequeathed by Patrick O'Connor, 2010
Photographs Collection
NPG Ax160068
Hetty King (Winifred Emms)
by (Alexander) Percy Guttenberg
print, early 1910s
7 7/8in. x 5 1/2in. (200 mm x 140 mm)
Purchased, 1987
Photographs Collection
NPG x29907
Hetty King (Winifred Emms)
published by Rotary Photographic Co Ltd
hand-coloured bromide postcard print, 1910s
5 3/8 in. x 3 3/8 in. (136 mm x 87 mm) overall
Given by Norman McCann, 2011
Photographs Collection
NPG x160519
Hetty King (Winifred Emms)
published by The Philco Publishing Co
bromide postcard print, 1910s
5 3/8 in. x 3 3/8 in. (137 mm x 87 mm) overall
Given by Norman McCann, 2011
Photographs Collection
NPG x160520
Hetty King (Winifred Emms)
by Foulsham & Banfield, published by Rotary Photographic Co Ltd
bromide postcard print, circa 1912
5 1/2 in. x 3 3/8 in. (139 mm x 87 mm) overall
Given by Terence Pepper, 2014
Photographs Collection
NPG x196950
She was married to actor and writer Ernie Lotinga (aka Ernest) (1876–1951), born in Sunderland. Her husband was a music hall comedian, singer and theatre proprietor, appearing as Dan Roe from 1898, who appeared in films in the 1920s and 1930s, often as the comic character PC Jimmy Josser. They divorced in 1917, decree nisi being granted on Friday 16 March by Sir Samuel Evans on the grounds of Miss King's misconduct with the vaudeville artist and actor Mr Jack Norworth. The divorce was not contested.[5]
Her half sister Olive Emms was also an actress and her half brother, Harold Emms, wrote many of Hetty's songs with his French wife, Francine.
The family were not related to H. Vernon Watson (1886–1949), the music hall artist performing under the sobriquet Nosmo King.
Hetty King was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium.
On 8 November 2010 a commemorative blue plaque was erected to King at her last residence in Wimbledon by the theatre charity The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America.
Hetty King appeared in the movie Lilacs in the Spring (1954), which was directed by Herbert Wilcox and starred Anna Neagle and Errol Flynn. Towards the end of her career, aged 87, she appeared in a film entitled Hetty King – Performer (1970).
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