William Percy French (1 May 1854 – 24 January 1920) was an Irish songwriter, author, poet, entertainer and painter.
Life
French was born at Clooneyquinn House, near Tulsk, County Roscommon, the son of an Anglo-Irish landlord, Christopher French, and Susan Emma French (née Percy). He was the third of nine children. His younger sister, Emily later Emily de Burgh Daly was also a writer.
He was educated in England at Kirk Langley and Windermere College before going to Foyle College in Derry and wrote his first successful song while studying at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) in 1877 for a smoking concert. The song, "Abdul Abulbul Amir", was published in 200 copies for £5 and French sold each copy for 2s6d, making a small fortune. However, he fatally omitted to register the copyright on the song and lost all the subsequent income from the royalties as it was re-published without his name. The royalties were restored to his widow and daughters after his death. The song later became hugely popular and was falsely claimed by other authors.
Although he lost copyright, French always claimed authorship and did so on the sleeve of his song "Slattery's Mounted Fut" (1889) and in every issue of the weekly The Jarvey. Brendan O'Dowda claimed to have discovered, via the popularity of versions of the song at the American military academies in the 1980s, that French had written the lyrics while at Trinity College. He claimed responsibility for the restoration of the royalties in the 1980s. Ettie French gives a different account of how the royalties were restored in her book Willie (1995) about her father's life. She claimed the royalties were restored in the 1940s to the family. The ballad resembles a comic opera spoof. "Pot Skivers" were the chambermaids at the college, thus Ivan "Potschjinski" Skivar would be a less than noble prince, and as Bulbul is an Arabic dialectic name of the nightingale, Abdul was thus a foppish "nightingale" amir (prince). When French died, not at all wealthy, he was owed a fortune in unpaid royalties. A windfall in royalties came to his family in the 1940s from "Abdullah Abulbul Ameer" and "Phil the Fluter's Ball".
French graduated from TCD first being conferred with a BA degree in 1885 as a civil engineer in 1880 and after a stint as an apprentice engineer on the Midlands Railway with fellow entertainer Charles Mansergh (later Charles Manners of the Moody-Manners Opera Company) French joined the Board of Works in County Cavan as an Inspector of Drains in 1883. While in Trinity French won five out of six watercolour prizes and he became a member of the Dublin Sketching Club in 1876. It is said that he wrote his best songs during his Cavan period. He also painted copiously and established a sketching club and a comic troupe The Kinnepottle Komics in Cavan. During this period, he considered art to be his true vocation. In fact, when he became well-known later in his life, his paintings from his time as a civil engineer became fashionable and sought after. The volcano Krakatoa erupted in 1883 while French was in Cavan, and the particles of volcanic ash caused dramatic sunsets all over the world. French painted some of his finest landscapes in this period as he captured the spectacular skies. French exhibited his pictures in the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) and sometimes gave them short lyrical poems for titles, such as "Only the sullen seas that flow/ And ebb forever more,/ But tarry awhile sad heart and, lo!/ A light on that lonely shore".
When the Board of Works reduced its staff around 1888, French turned to journalism as the editor of The Jarvey, a weekly comic paper. French was an enthusiastic cyclist, who cycled all over the country with his art materials stopping to sketch and paint. He was good friends with "Arjay" Mecredy, and when Mecredy went on holiday, he asked French to stand in for him as editor of The Irish Cyclist magazine. French's fey sense of humour caused him to make facetious replies to the letters to the editor, and Mecredy returned to a storm of raging withdrawals of subscriptions. He offered to subvent French in a humorous magazine.
When The Jarvey failed, French's long and successful career as a songwriter and entertainer began. He had lived by the canal in Dublin at 35 Mespil Road before going to London in 1890. He famously wrote to his friends when he moved there: "We have come to live by the canal, do drop in". A granite seat was erected in 1988 on the canal near his home, dedicated to French. It was sponsored by the Oriel Gallery and bears another witticism of French's: "Remember me is all I ask, / And if that memory proves a task, forget".
French was renowned for composing and singing comic songs and gained considerable distinction with such songs as Phil the Fluther's Ball, Slattery's Mounted Foot, and The Mountains of Mourne (this last was one of several written with his friend, stage partner and fellow composer, Houston Collisson). The song was set to the same air as Thomas Moore's "Bendmeer's Stream" which, in turn, was adapted from the old Irish Air "Carraigdhoun". French also wrote many sketches and amusing parodies, the most famous of which is The Queen's After-Dinner Speech, written on the occasion of Queen Victoria's visit to Dublin in 1900, in which French drolly suggests "There's a slate off Willie Yeats". In addition, he wrote several poems, some he called "poems of pathos". Many of his poems and songs are on the theme of emigration. He remained a regular contributor to The Irish Cyclist, a weekly journal until his death.
"Are Ye Right There Michael", a song ridiculing the state of the rail system in rural County Clare caused such embarrassment to the rail company that – according to a persistent local legend – it led to a libel action against French. According to the story, French arrived late at the court, and when questioned by the judge he responded "Your honour, I travelled by the West Clare Railway", resulting in the case being thrown out.
In January 1920, when he was 65 years old, French became ill while performing in Glasgow. He died from pneumonia in Formby, England at the home of his cousin, Canon Richardson of Green Lea, College Avenue, on 24 January 1920. His grave is in the churchyard of St Luke's Church, Formby, Merseyside.
Memorials
In 1988, The Oriel Gallery sponsored a seat erected by the OPW opposite 35 Mespil Road, on the canal, Dublin. French lived there from 1894-1900 with his second wife and family. When he moved there, he sent out a communication to his friend: 'We have come to live by the canal, Do drop in!'
A sculpture of a park bench and plaque depicting his likeness by Brid Ni Rinn was installed on the spot where French was inspired to write "The Mountains of Mourne" in Red Island Park, Skerries, County Dublin, in 2008.
A statue of French sitting on a park bench in the town centre of Ballyjamesduff honours him and his song Come Back, Paddy Reilly, to Ballyjamesduff.
In March 2020, a memorial to French was unveiled in Newcastle, County Down, at the site of the Slieve Donard Hotel at the foot of the Mountains of Mourne, to mark the centenary of his death.
Songs
The following songs are attributed to Percy French:
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Operatic works
Collaborations with William Houston Collisson (1865–1920)
The Knight of the Road (1891), later known as The Irish Girl (published c. 1918)
Strongbow (1892)
Midsummer Madness (1892)
Noah's Ark (1906)
Freda and the Fairies
Watercolours by Percy French and the Oriel Gallery
Artworks by French have increased in value. On 20 September 2005, the Percy French watercolour landscape Where ever I go my heart turns back to the County Mayo was sold by Dublin auctioneers Whyte's for a then-record price of €44,000. It is also known as "The Iveagh Percy French" as it came from the Guinness family collection. The story goes that the purchaser had "buyer's remorse", and the painting was purchased immediately by a gallerist. Some ten days after this auction, the Apollo Gallery sold this iconic painting on to an American collector for €65,000.
The founder of the Oriel Gallery Dublin, the late Oliver Nulty (d 2005) mounted several one-man and group Percy French watercolour exhibitions in the Oriel and wrote several catalogues but his valedictory salute to French was a comprehensive biography focusing on his paintings, Lead Kindly Light, produced and written by Oliver Nulty of the Oriel Gallery in 2002, the culmination of his life's work promoting French at a time of official neglect. Bernadette Lowry edited the publication and contributed the essay "Percy French in a Wider Cultural Context", which assessed the wider cultural significance of French, especially underscoring his ear for idiom and his matchless facility with Hiberno-English for the first time. It is now a collector's item. The title was taken from French's favourite hymn "Lead Kindly Light" by John Henry Newman. It was chosen as a metaphor for French's paintings as the light always leads gently into his pictures. A runner-up title which the Oriel considered was Tones That Are Tender from French's song "Come Back Paddy Reilly". French's landscape paintings are described in The Watercolours of Ireland by Patricia Butler as "laden with atmosphere".
Oliver Nulty (d. 2005) established the Oriel Gallery in Clare Street, Dublin in 1868, which opened with a Percy French and George Russell exhibition. Nulty promoted French from the day he opened the gallery in 1968 and mounted at least 15 solo exhibitions of French and several group shows featuring French, one opened by Peter Ustinov. Nulty had been a collector for years before opening a gallery but he had a particularly fondness for French as his parents had met French in London in 1913 when they attended one of his matinees and met him afterwards. Nulty noticed that Irish visual art was neglected. He once witnessed that a George Russel had only been sold when a coal scuttle was thrown into the lot which sold for 2/6. As well as mounting several solo exhibitions of French's paintings he published several catalogues of French's watercolours. French's daughters, Joan and Ettie were regular visitors to the Oriel Gallery from the early 1970s and the gallery possesses their letters to Oliver. Peter Ustinov opened the 1986 French exhibition in the Oriel to a thronged audience.
French's archive currently resides in the North Down Museum, Bangor, County Down where researchers are welcome to view material by appointment with the museum.
Bibliography
Emily de Burg Daly : Chronicles and Poems of Percy French, with an introduction by Katharine Tynan (Dublin: Talbot Press, 1922).
Emily de Burg Daly Daly: Prose, Poems and Parodies of Percy French, with an introduction by Alfred Perceval Graves (Dublin: Talbot Press, 1929; 3/1962).
James N. Healy: Percy French and his Songs (Cork: Mercier Press, 1966).
Brendan O'Dowda: The World of Percy French (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1981; 3/1997).
Alan Tongue: A Picture of Percy French (Belfast: Greystone Books, 1990).
Ettie French: Willie: A Tribute to Percy French (Holywood, County Down: Percy French Society, 1994).
Oliver Nulty (ed. by Bernadette Lowry): Lead Kindly Light. Celebrating 150 Years of Percy French (Dublin: Oriel Gallery Dublin Gallery, 2002).
Berrie O'Neill: Tones that are Tender: Percy French, 1854–1920 (Dublin: Lilliput Press, 2016).
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