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Ernest Thesiger, My Only Weakness [1]

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Date: 2024-06-06  

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.”

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