• November 12, 2019

Remembrance Sunday musical – my thanks to all

Remembrance Sunday musical – my thanks to all

Remembrance Sunday musical – my thanks to all 150 150 mhamer

My immense gratitude to all the cast, Jonathan Young, Sue Devaney, @AndrewJBoyer and Musical Director Steve Warburton and the Holy Family R.C. Primary School Choir! Also my thanks to Billy the Mayor and his lovely wife Lynn, and his staff, Dorothy and Naz for all their support

Jimmy Cricket expressed his gratitude to everybody involved following the staging of his war hero musical on Remembrance Sunday.

Let’s hear it for the wee man was performed at Rochdale Town Hall in aid of charity.
It told the story of Northern Ireland’s only recipient of the Victoria Cross, the courageous submariner James Magennis.

Jimmy, 74, tweeted afterwards: “My immense gratitude to all the cast, Jonathan Young, Sue Devaney, @AndrewJBoyer and Musical Director Steve Warburton and the Holy Family R.C. Primary School Choir!

“Also my thanks to Billy the Mayor and his lovely wife Lynn, and his staff, Dorothy and Naz for all their support????

Faced grave danger

James Magennis who joined the Royal Navy aged 15. He won the UK’s highest military honour for his bravery onboard a midget sub that attacked the Japanese cruiser Takao on 31 July 1945.

His job was to attach six mines to the enemy vessel in the risky covert operation in Singapore Harbour.

Jimmy and @RochdaleMayor Coun Billy Sheerin having a good old yarn about the James Magennis play

However, he ran into difficulties and faced grave danger.

But he persisted with the mission before returning to the sub exhausted.

King George VI recognised his heroics by awarding him the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry.

Magennis continued his service until 1949 when he returned home with his wife Edna Skidmore and their four sons.

In 1952, he lost his job and was forced to sell his VC medal.

However, an anonymous benefactor later returned it to him on the condition he did not sell it again.

Blue plaque

Magennis spent the rest of his life in Yorkshire working as an electrician before dying of cancer in 1986 aged 66.

His heroics were commemorated in 2018 with a special blue plaque in his honour.

Belfast-born Jimmy wrote both the words and the music for the play.

It also featured actor Charles Lawson, actress and singer Sue Devaney and comedian Jimmy himself.

Read more about the Mayor of Rochdale’s charity appeal here.

Find out where Jimmy is performing and his other forthcoming shows by viewing all his tour dates on this website.

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