Page 1: Cook / Unwin

CLICK FOR Page 2. Naylor / Ball
CLICK FOR Page 3. The Haywoods

Commemorative plaque to Jospeh Naylor

It is with great delight that I am creating another colour supplement. In part this is an administrative move as the main (red) section was getting very full and increasingly difficult to navigate around. It is also however the new area for stories, recollections and memorabilia about the maternal side of my family.

First and foremost are the pages relating to my grandfather, George Cook. He was a very keen Savoyard and I have been able to use several of his photographs to illustrate a series of reviews that I wrote a couple of years ago about the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. Aspects of his story appear on several pages in this section and these have now been brought together in a single article.

My grandmother, Miriam Naylor, came from a large family of coalminers - she had seven older brothers!. It has taken some time to tease out the branches that originated in the villages near Alfreton in Derbyshire. Their stories have now been collected together in a series of articles which can be found on PAGE 2 of this section. Research into the other South Normanton families which have intermarried with the Naylors now appears on PAGE 3

"I am, in point of fact, a particularly haughty and exclusive person, of pre-Adamite ancestral descent. You will understand this when I tell you that I can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial atomic globule. Consequently, my family pride is something inconceivable." Boo-Bah; from The Mikado.

George Cook as Nanki-Poo

I have already written about my grandfather, George Cook (1883 – 1968) in another article on these pages. He was a leading light in the local amateur dramatic society in Leicester in the 1920s and early 30s. I am told that he had a fine tenor voice and was on the edge of pursuing a professional career. I have photographs of him in costume from a number of staged productions. In more recent times other family members have developed a similar keen interest in Gilbert and Sullivan.

He also produced and annotated a photographic record of his fellow actors in several of the Leicester Amateurs productions at the Royal Opera House, Leicester. Many of his pictures have been reproduced here on the following pages:

"HMS PINAFORE" - 1922 by GEORGE COOK
"TRIAL BY JURY" - 1922 by GEORGE COOK
"G&S MISCELLANY" by GEORGE COOK
HMS PINAFORE / TRIAL BY JURY PROGRAMME

A couple of years ago I wrote a series of reviews that were posted on two web-based consumer opinion sites. I am currently updating these articles and illustrating them with some of these old photographs. I am dedicating this section to his memory and I hope to have this complete by the time of his birthdate in January next year.

With the addition of "The Grand Duke" the series is complete. All that is left to add is the illustrated review of the D'Oyly Carte performance of "Orpheus in the Underworld".

Newfloridian - Last modified: April 25th 2008