Water Rat No. 138 – Comedian and Music Hall Entertainer
William James “Billy” Churchill was a popular comedian and music hall entertainer whose remarkably long career spanned the great age of British variety. Remembered affectionately as “Uncle Billy”, Churchill became particularly associated with seaside entertainment in North Wales and was a longstanding member of the Grand Order of Water Rats.
The Order’s surviving Roll of Honour records him as Water Rat No. 138 – Wm. J. Churchill, “Billy” Churchill, Comedian.
Churchill enjoyed a theatrical career extending over several decades, appearing in music halls, variety theatres and pantomime. He became especially well known in Llandudno, where he was closely associated with the entertainment at Happy Valley and his own troupe of minstrels.
Contemporary advertising and surviving theatrical material show Churchill established as a recognised variety performer by the beginning of the twentieth century. His popularity is also demonstrated by a number of surviving pieces of sheet music carrying his name and portrait.
Among these was “Faith, Hope and Charity”, written and composed by W. H. Wallis and Fred E. Terry and published by Francis, Day & Hunter. The surviving cover carries a particularly fine portrait of Churchill and provides an important visual record of the performer during his music hall career.
Churchill continued his association with seaside entertainment for many years and became a familiar figure to generations of holidaymakers. By the time of his retirement he represented an increasingly rare link with the Victorian and Edwardian music hall tradition.
The First Water Rats Badge?
One particularly fascinating story concerning Churchill appeared in the theatrical newspaper The Stage on Thursday 21 March 1929.
Reporting on a visit Churchill had made to London, the newspaper referred to him affectionately as “Uncle Billy Churchill, the ex-monarch of the ‘Happy Valley,’ Llandudno” and reported that he was proudly displaying what it described as:
“the first Water Rats badge that was ever made”
The report went on to state that the badge was subsequently copied and officially adopted by the Order. Even more intriguingly, it described Churchill's original badge as being made of gold from a sovereign.
The surviving newspaper report provides a fascinating contemporary account, although in the absence of the Order's complete early records it cannot presently be independently confirmed that Churchill's badge was indeed the first ever made.
Nevertheless, the specificity of the report, published while Churchill himself was still alive and apparently displaying the object concerned, makes it an important piece of evidence in the history of the Grand Order of Water Rats and its famous gold emblem.
A surviving early photograph of Churchill also appears to show a small object attached to his left lapel. The resolution of the photograph is insufficient to identify it conclusively as a Water Rat, but its position is particularly interesting in light of the 1929 account.
Further research may yet establish when Churchill's badge was made, who made it, and whether the original survives today.
A Veteran of Variety
Churchill lived to see enormous changes in British entertainment, from the Victorian music halls through the Edwardian variety era and into the age of radio and cinema.
His long career and association with Happy Valley made “Uncle Billy” a familiar figure within the profession, while his membership of the Grand Order of Water Rats connected him with many of the leading entertainers of his generation.
Today, his place as Water Rat No. 138 provides another link with the earliest years of the Order.
The remarkable 1929 account concerning his gold badge adds a tantalising possibility to his story: that Billy Churchill may not only have been one of the early Brothers of the Grand Order of Water Rats, but also the man associated with the prototype from which one of the Order's most enduring traditions, the gold Water Rat emblem, developed.
Water Rat No. 138 – William J. “Billy” Churchill Comedian, music hall entertainer and veteran of British variety.
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