At school, Terry played the lead in Mrs Mason’s Homely Kitchen, and it went so well that the teacher asked his mother if he could repeat it at a local pub.
During the Second World War he was a cook in the officers’ mess sailing between England and Gibraltar, and was also a performer both at Chatham Barracks and in concert parties in Gibraltar. In 1944 he was in the army drag show: We Were in the Forces.
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| Gardener and Chat mid 1960s |
He was one of the few to continue working in drag when the forces drag shows came to an end in the mid 1950s. He was a partner with Alan Haynes for a while, and was then a partner of Barri Chat from early 1950s as The Pin-Up Girls of Comedy.
Then and later he played dames roles in Christmas Pantomimes – Terry did it every year for 40 years. He died at age 81.
- Chris Shaw & Arthur Oates. A Pictorial History of the Art of Female Impersonation. King-Shaw Productions. 1966. http://queermusicheritage.com/fem-pic2.html.
- Roger Baker. Drag: a history of Female Impersonation on the Stage. A Triton Book. 1968: 183,193.
- Desmond Montmorency. The Drag Scene: The Secrets of Female Impersonators. Luxor Press. 1970: 158-9.
- Kris Kirk & Ed Heath. Men in Frocks. London: GMP, 1984: 18, 19, 20,
- Alkarim Jivani. It’s Not Unusual: A History of Lesbian and Gay Britain in the Twentieth Century. Indiana University Press. 1997: 14-5,21-2,52,62-4,65,120,210.
Terry and my grandmother were good friends, Terry often using her professional accompanist skills on the piano when performing. In the 1980's they regularly appeared in gay venues in London!
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