For Pride Month I would like to share a bit about my favorite historical personage, Ernest Thesiger. I became enamored of Ernest while reading his 1927 memoir, Practically True. I wanted to learn more about him, but found there was not much information readily available, so I began researching and eventually created a website dedicated to him. The more I learned about this fascinating person the more I was impressed by him as a uniquely creative and courageous individual.
Ernest is now primarily known for the two films he made with director James Whale, “The Old Dark House” (1932) and “Bride of Frankenstein” (1935), but in his time he was a tremendously popular and successful figure on the London stage. A notorious eccentric, he was as interesting as the characters he portrayed on stage and screen.
On his mother’s side Ernest was descended from King Henry VII, and on his father’s side from a family of achievers in law, public affairs, and the military.
Breaking tradition with his family, Ernest chose a career as an artist and enrolled at the Slade School of Art, London.
William Ranken c. 1907. Photo by Baron Adolph de Meyer
While at the Slade he began a relationship with fellow student William Bruce Ellis Ranken which would last the rest of Ranken’s life. In 1908 Ernest performed in a charity production of “The Importance of Being Earnest” with William’s eldest sister, Janette Mary Fernie (b.1877 - d.1970), who pursued a brief stage career under the name Juliet Hardinge.
Ajaccio, 1906. Collection of the author.
In the early 1900s, Ernest traveled through Europe and as far as North Africa, producing landscapes in watercolor from locations in France, Italy, Corsica, Madeira, and Morocco. He was not successful enough to make a living as a painter, so decided to try acting as a career. However, he continued to paint throughout his life, working primarily in watercolor.
During the next decade he became active in the women's suffrage movement with his friends the Moore sisters, Eva and Hilda, both actresses. He played the Mad Hatter opposite Eva's Alice in a pro-suffrage play, “Alice in Ganderland.” He carried a banner for the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage in the Women’s Coronation Procession through London on June 17, 1911.
At the beginning of the First World War, Ernest rushed off to enlist in the army.
Private Ernest Thesiger, Service #2546, of the Queen Victoria’s Rifles, 9th Battalion, London Regiment. Photo: The University of Bristol Theatre Collection/ArenaPAL
“I thought a kilt would suit me, so I applied at the London Scottish Headquarters, but my Scottish accent, assumed for the occasion, was apparently not convincing, and I was referred to another London regiment. Getting into a taxi, I consulted the list of recruiting stations and found myself in a queue outside the Headquarters of the Queen Victoria Rifles in Davies Street. I came away a few hours later a private in His Majesty’s Army.”
Ernest Thesiger, Practically True
After cursory training during which all members of his battalion fired their rifles exactly twice, Ernest traveled to Le Havre and from there to the Front, where his division was stationed near the town of Bailleul. On the 31st of December, 1914, the soldiers were digging trenches in the mud. They found shelter from the cold in a deserted barn, but the next morning the barn was hit by a shell. Ernest was knocked unconscious and later woke to find most of his companions wounded or dead. His right arm was broken and both hands mutilated.
“An officer outside told me to find my way to the dressing-station, and holding my hands above my head for fear that if I stumbled they would get more damaged, I walked back to a farm where I could get bandaged up. I looked at my hands from time to time to assure myself that all my fingers were still there - I could feel nothing - but was convinced that I would never be able to use them again. At the dressing-station a liberal application of iodine effectually did away with the numbness that had so far come to my rescue, and I fainted with the pain. Forty-eight hours afterwards I was in hospital at Le Treport, and three weeks later in England.”
Ernest Thesiger, Practically True
During his convalescence, Ernest devised a scheme for teaching other wounded veterans needlework, which eventually became the Disabled Soldiers’ Embroidery Industry. After healing sufficiently, he went back on the stage and immediately became a star, playing the lead in a hugely popular farce entitled “A Little Bit of Fluff,” which ran for 1241 performances. While this was going on he married his friend Janette Ranken and finally moved out of his father’s house.
“Mr. Ernest Thesiger, son of the Hon. Sir Edward Thesiger, and cousin of Lord Chelmsford, was married yesterday afternoon at Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, to Miss Janette Ranken, daughter of the late Mr. W.B. Ranken, of Edinburgh. The bridegroom has made a great name for himself for his splendid acting in ‘A Little Bit of Fluff,’ now past its 700th performance. Miss Ranken, who was given away by her brother, Major Ranken, wore pale putty-colored crepe de chine with fine dull silver lace, and carried a sheaf of multi-colored roses. The Hon. Stephen Powys was best man, and there were no attendants. As both bride and bridegroom belong to the artistic circle in London, there was a gathering of interesting people at the ceremony, including Miss Eva Moore, Miss Hilda Moore, Mrs John Beith (wife of ‘Ian Hay’), Lady Strachie, Lady Dunedin, Lady Wodehouse, Lady Charnwood, Lady Mary Shelley, the Dowager Lady Henley, Sir Edward Thesiger, and Mrs. Paris Singer.”
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, May 30, 1917
Though Ernest doesn’t mention Janette in his published memoir, Practically True, they did share a public life together, attending exhibitions of William’s paintings, friends’ weddings, and some parties.
Ernest remained primarily a stage actor, performing until just weeks before his death. He was one of the favorite actors of the playwright Bernard Shaw, who wrote the roles of The Dauphin in “Saint Joan” , The Microbe Monster in “Too True to be Good,” and Sir Orpheus Midlander in “Geneva” for him.
As Sir Orpheus Midlander
“It would be impossible to deny Ernest Thesiger’s versatility. It is astonishing what, with his so pronounced personality, he is able to do. He made his name after returning wounded from the front in the early years of the war, in a ridiculous and imbecile farce, ‘A Little Bit of Fluff.’ He played this, I believe, for more than two years, which would have been quite enough, one would fancy, to destroy anybody’s talent, and then he startled us with his admirable tenderness in the part of the Scotchman in Barrie’s ‘Mary Rose.’ He was less well suited in Maugham’s ‘Circle.’ He again becomes most notable in Galsworthy’s ‘Pigeon’ at the Court Theatre. He had there a most difficult part, not quite realized, I think, by the author, certainly not quite given to us completely in earlier representations of it, and he put that final touch to it, as the artist should, and made it a convincing thing. His appearance is bizarre, and there are, of course, many parts in which he could not be well suited, but his intelligence is acute and he has an astonishing gift of adding poetry to all that he has to do. Even the most futile farce becomes something a little better when he touches it. I should like to see him play Iago and Richard the Third and the Fool in ‘King Lear’ and many other things. He is old enough and wise enough to know just what he is about; he is talented in all sorts of ways; a painter of no mean repute, an admirable musician, one of the best mimics London has ever seen, and finally, he is unlike anyone else at all. He has certainly a great future.”
“The Versatile Thesiger” Hugh Walpole, Vanity Fair, August 1922
To fill time between stage productions, Ernest tried his hand at film acting.
“I received a large salary for appearing in a film version of “A Little Bit of Fluff”, but having never filmed before was entirely ignorant of the technique, and the producer never attempted to explain the different methods of acting according to whether one is near to or far from the camera. He himself was so ignorant of picture-making that he imagined that because I had made a success in the play I should do equally well on the screen. He was lamentably wrong, and I was a complete failure. Afterwards, with a little more experience, I learnt what could have been taught me in a few minutes; but having made a failure of what ought to have been my success, my later-acquired technique didn’t help me to get many offers from film-makers.”
Ernest Thesiger, Practically True
Fortunately Ernest was wrong about his prospects on the screen and proceeded to have a fine career as a character actor in dozens of films. In 1932 he co-starred with his friend Eva Moore in James Whale’s “The Old Dark House,” one of my favorite movies.
“He [James Whale] heard that I was playing in New York and when the run of ‘The Devil’ ended suggested that I should come out to the coast and make a picture. I did a test in New York, which was so bad that the Hollywood authorities, I am told, roared with laughter when they saw it. However one short part of it was better than the rest and I was given a contract.”
Ernest Thesiger, from his unpublished memoir, I Was
With Raymond Massey, Charles Laughton, and Gloria Stuart
Two years later Whale invited Ernest to play what has probably become his most famous role, that of the mad Doctor Septimus Pretorius in "Bride of Frankenstein.”
1939
Ernest lived and worked in London throughout most of World War II. During July of 1944, he appeared as Malvolio in a production of “Twelfth Night” at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park. A bomb was dropped nearby during one performance.
He performed for radio and television also, though sadly most of his work in these media appears to be lost. Never idle for a moment, he engaged in many charitable endeavors as well as various craft-related hobbies . One of his favorites was costumery. He loved costume parties and would sometimes attend in female dress.
In an oriental costume of his own creation
He was considered a world-class expert in petit point embroidery. His book Adventures in Embroidery was published in 1941, with a revised edition published in 1947.
Ernest at home seated in a chair which he upholstered with his own embroidery, 1930s. Photo: University of Bristol/ArenaPal
“...there is no occupation in the world so absorbing as trying to paint. Everything, every worry, is for the moment forgotten in the effort, however unsuccessful, of creating a masterpiece. To the surprise of many and the horror of some, I have also found great pleasure in needlework, which, after all, is only another way of making pictures.”
He collected mercury glass, though much of his collection was destroyed after his house was damaged during the Blitz. He was very fond of his collection of antique rings, and chose an appropriate ring to wear for most of his film and stage characters.
Except for being bullied so badly at public school that he had to drop out and be taught by a tutor, Ernest was able to simply be himself throughout the rest of his long life, with no apparent trouble despite his nonconformity. I think this is because he never pretended to be anything but what he was, a unique individual.
Ernest at the Malvern Festival, 1934
Ernest remained married to Janette and lived with her until his death. William died unexpectedly from a brain hemorrhage in the Spring of 1941.
Janette became blind some time during the 1950s. The Thesigers’ last residence was at 8 St George’s Court, Gloucester Road, Kensington, London, where Ernest died in his sleep on the eve of his 82nd birthday.
It was difficult for me to summarize the life of such a multi-faceted person, and there is much more to learn about him, I’m certain. If this hasn’t been enough for you, please visit ernestthesiger.org, my rather old and probably somewhat broken website. I hope to update it some day!
For those who want to see more of this interesting performer, I recommend these films:
1. "The Old Dark House" 1932
2. "The Night of the Party" or "Murder Party" 1935
3. Bride of Frankenstein” 1935
4. "They Drive by Night" or "Murder on the Run" 1939
5. "The Horse's Mouth" 1958