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Minnie Florence Hawkins, dancer

M

Martin PW

proper brummie kid
Hi, everyone. I am doing some research into my paternal grandmother, Minnie Florence Hawkins.

Minnie was a dancer and was a member of the Brewster dance troupe in Birmingham for a time.

At a young age Minnie (under the guidance and care of Mr Brewster) embarked on a dancing tour of Europe, including time spent at the Moulin Rouge in Paris, pre WW1 and before the disastrous fire there.

Eventually she met and married Harold Webb Scholes whilst working in France and they had one son, Adrian Peter Scholes, who was my dad.

If anyone can help with information about Minnie and her career as a dancer, my Hawkins family relatives or the Brewster Dance Troupe I'd be very pleased to hear from you.
 
hi martin was it more the dancing side you are researching or tracing minnies family line back ? or maybe both ? either way could you give us a bit more info please such as minnies date of birth and where born..

edit..just noticed there is a family tree on ancestry for a minnie florence hawkins with a photo of her..says born 1890 died 1968 i take it this is your grandmother if so her census records etc are all on ancestry so there should be no problem tracing that line back...hope this helps

there could be some newpaper articles regarding her dancing career so maybe some of our members who are subscribed to the newspaper archives would kindly take a look for you

lyn
 
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A few mentions of the Troupe in Birmingham prior to the Great War.
1903 at The Alexandra specialities introduced by the Brewster Troupe of Lady dancers.
1908 Gaiety, Brewster Group of 5 girls, good lance and sword dances.
Feb 1904 Kitty Brewster special attention, while Brewster Troupe of dancing girls were altogether excellent.
 
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i noticed on the 1939 eve of war census minnie was a widow living in ledsam street with your dad adrian scholes..

lyn
 
Astoness said:
harolds ww1 war records are on ancestry but i am guessing you know this already

lyn
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Some are, but others were secret. He made the mistake of admitting to being fluent in German in the trenches and when they found out how fluent he was quickly moved on to a new assignment! (He'd spent a considerable amount of time in Germany preWW1.)
 
Yes it does say that, but although there are mentions of the Troupe in Birmingham, they are mentioned all over the place. At present I can’t find any particular relation to Birmingham or anywhere else, which seems unusual, but keep on looking.
 
Pedrocut said:
Interestingly in 1911 there was a Brewster Parisian Academy of Dancing and Speciality Acts.
6 RUE Saulnier, Paris.
Click to expand...
thanks pedro...so it seems that the brewster academy was based in paris not in birmingham...i just wondered

lyn
 
The original post states "The Brewster dance troupe in Birmingham" but the from say 1900 to the start of the Great War they were performing round the UK and abroad.
In post 10 it says Mr. Brewster reportedly made his dancers attend Church with his family. Where does this report come from?
The descriptions of the performances suggest that they were not only dancers but had many talents that would class them as speciality acts.
 
Theory to be falsified….

There are mentions of “Brewster’s Troupe” for sure but also Brewster’s Minstrels, Kitty Brewster’s Toupe and others. Below is a clip from January 1912…what do we make of it ?

IMG_5351.jpeg
 
Pedrocut said:
Theory to be falsified….

There are mentions of “Brewster’s Troupe” for sure but also Brewster’s Minstrels, Kitty Brewster’s Toupe and others. Below is a clip from January 1912…what do we make of it ?

View attachment 204259
Click to expand...
not sure what to make of it pedro...my main question is did minnie still live in birmingham when she started to dance for brewsters or did she travel abroad to join the company...maybe martin has the answer if we cant find any records showing that brewsters were indeed based in birmingham then it does look like minnie travelled abroard to join them

lyn
 
They are many mentions so can’t be sure which publication, but below we have a manager from The Era.

In 1911 we have Brewster Troupe.
5 Ladies
6 Ontarios, Ladies
9 Planets, Ladies
6 New Brightons, Ladies

J.E. Brewster, Manager
 
as i cant find minnie on either the 1911 or the 1921 census in birmingham it looks like between these years she was dancing abroad..however she was in birmingham in 1923 which is when her son adrian was born..

lyn
 
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