Powys-Lybbe Forbears - Person Sheet
Powys-Lybbe Forbears - Person Sheet
Birth22 Feb 1897, Denman Villas, Tolworth, Surrey
Death12 Feb 1985, St George’s Hospital, Tooting, London
General3rd s. A well-known entertainer on stage and radio and later television, as Leslie Sarony.
MotherMary Sarony (ca1856-ca1936)
Notes for Leslie Legge Sarony (Born Frye)
His birth index, note his Frye surname then:

First name(s) LESLIE LEGGE
Last name FRYE
Birth year 1897
Birth quarter 1
Registration month -
Mother's last name -
District KINGSTON
County Surrey
Country England
Volume 2A
Page 395
Record set England & Wales births 1837-2006
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In the 1901 census he was living at 50 Beaconsfield Rd, Twickenham, Mx with his parents, aged 4, born in Isleworth, Mx.

He m., 3 Apr 1939, Anite Eaton [sic, but Caton on marriage index] and they had three sons but were divorced in 1953.
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In the 1939 Register, he and Anita were recroded as married and living in Chatham:

FIRST NAME(S) LAST NAME(S) DOB SEX OCCUPATION MARITAL STATUS  SCHEDULE  SCHEDULE SUB NUMBER

Leslie Sarony (Frye) 22 Feb 1897 Female Variety Radio Artist Travelling  Married  328  1
Anita Sarony 29 Jan 1914 Female Variety Radio Artist Travelling  Married  328  2

The original records had the name of Frye, scratched out and changed to Sarony.
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His death index:

First name(s) LESLIE
Last name SARONY
Gender Unknown
Birth day 22
Birth month 2
Birth year 1897
Age -
Death quarter 1
Death year 1985
District WANDSWORTH
Register number 285
County London
Volume 15
Page 1598
Country England
Record set England & Wales deaths 1837-2007
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Will notes for Leslie Legge Sarony (Born Frye)
From the probate index:

SARONY, Leslie Legge of 12 Telford CT, Streatham Hill London SW2 died 12 february 1985 Probate London 19 July £93945  8551110076U
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DNB Main notes for Leslie Legge Sarony (Born Frye)
He has an article by Roy Hudd in the new ODNB.

Sarony, Leslie [real name Leslie Legge Frye]
(1897–1985)
Roy Hudd, revised
https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/31654
Published in print: 23 September 2004Published online: 23 September 2004

Sarony, Leslie [real name Leslie Legge Frye] (1897–1985), songwriter and entertainer, was born at Denman Villa, Tolworth, Surbiton, Surrey, on 22 February 1897, the youngest of the three sons and three daughters of William Rawstorne-Frye, portrait painter, and his wife, Mary Sarony. He first appeared in talent shows at the age of twelve. At fourteen he took his mother's maiden name and became a professional entertainer with Park's Eton Boys and Girton Girls and other juvenile variety acts.

When the First World War began Sarony lied about his age, joined the London Scottish regiment, and saw service on the Somme at Vimy Ridge and in Salonika and Macedonia. He contracted malaria and dysentery and, during recuperation in Malta, wrote his first lyric, a parody of a popular song called 'Three Hundred and Sixty Five Days'. His version was about the surfeit of cheese the troops were served.

On being demobilized Sarony resumed his career in variety, pantomime, revue, and musical comedy. An excellent dancer, in 1926 he played the juvenile lead, Frank, in the original Drury Lane Theatre production of Show Boat. His West End shows in the 1920s included appearances in The Peep Show, Dover Street to Dixie, Brighter London, and The Whirl of the World. His songwriting and recording careers also started in the 1920s. Between 1926 and 1939 he worked for every recording company in the country. He made over 350 records under his own name and dozens more under assumed ones. Many of his recordings, as featured vocalist, were with Jack Hylton and his band.

In 1935 Sarony formed, with Leslie Holmes, the variety act the Two Leslies. For eleven years they appeared on radio and topped variety bills all over the country. In 1938 they appeared in the royal variety performance. Holmes retired in 1946 and Sarony continued the act for three years with Michael Cole. He became a solo variety act in the late 1940s. He had married, on 3 April 1939, an actress, Anita (b. 1914/15), daughter of Frederick Charles Eaton, a dairy owner, auctioneer, and racehorse owner. They had three sons, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1953. In the 1970s he was much in demand as a character actor, playing everything from Samuel Beckett's Endgame and As You Like It to film roles in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Yanks as well as, on television, I Didn't Know you Cared.
Sarony was a tiny, dynamic, ebullient, aggressively forthright and hard-working, dyed-in-the-wool professional to whom entertaining was a job of work. Yet his songs were special. 'I lift up my finger and I say tweet tweet', 'Jollity Farm', and 'Ain't it grand to be bloomin' well dead' were all enormously popular, as was his recording of the folk-song 'The Old Sow'. His stirring march 'When the Guards are on Parade' reflected his love of the military life. The titles of a few of his 150 published songs recall the England of the 1930s—'Tune in', 'Teas, light refreshments, and minerals', 'I like riding on a choo choo choo', and 'Mucking about in the garden' (written, incidentally, under the pseudonym Q. Kumber).

Off stage Sarony was a keen golfer and his 'men only' parodies, written and performed for the Vaudeville Golfing Society, are masterpieces of Rabelaisian doggerel. In the 1980s he was made a member of the Grand Order of Water Rats and president of the Concert Artistes' Association, and was presented with the gold badge of merit by the Songwriters' Guild of Great Britain. In 1983 he appeared in his second royal variety performance. Sarony died of cancer on 12 February 1985 in St George's Hospital, Tooting, London.

Sources
personal knowledge (1990)
private information (1990)
The Times (14 Feb 1985)

Google PreviewWorldCat
D. Robinson, ‘Leslie Sarony: going straight at 78’, Times Saturday Review (23 Aug 1975), 9
Google PreviewWorldCat
Notes for Leslie Legge & Anita (Family)
Their marriage index:

First name(s) LESLIE S
Last name FRYE
Marriage quarter 2
Marriage year 1939
Registration month -
MarriageFinder™ LESLIE S FRYE married
ANITA CATON
Spouse's last name CATON
District MARYLEBONE
District number -
County London
Country England
Volume 1A
Page 1486
Record set England & Wales marriages 1837-2008
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Last Modified 23 Sep 2020Created 14 May 2022 by Tim Powys-Lybbe
Re-created by Tim Powys-Lybbe on 14 May 20220