South Yorkshire Times, Saturday January 6th 1951
Kilnhurst Amateur Theatrical Society
Vera Williams
When Kilnhurst Amateur Theatrical Society make their Mexborough debut in the Royal Cinema on January 29th, with their pantomime, “Babes in the Wood,” Vera Williams, their musical director will be undergoing a new experience. For the first time in an extensive amateur stage career she will be playing in Mexborough on the “other side” If the footlights. Instead of taking “leads” in musical comedies and pantomimes, she will be conducting the eight-piece orchestra.
Started at Three
Miss Williams — her married name is Mrs. George Styling—began her career as a soloist at the age of three. She had the advantage of being trained by her father, the well-known Willie Williams, a musical pioneer in the Don Valley. In 1931 she joined the chorus of Wath Operatic Society and played in “The Quaker Girl.” After a few more musicals, she joined Mexboro’ Operatic Society, then newly-formed, under the production direction, of Jack Snelgrove and the musical direction of her father. That was in 1934. She played the lead in “The Arcadians,” and afterwards there was a long succession of leading parts.
With Midgley
Following a blank period in the war during which she was engaged in Civil Defence, Miss Williams was invited back to the Mexborough Society (now the South Yorkshire Musical Comedy Society) and was offered the lead in “The Student Prince.” Playing opposite her was the well-known Covent Garden tenor. Walter Midgley. This show proved her greatest personal triumph.
“It was a wonderful experience,” she said this week, “far beyond my dreams.”
Cousin-Producer
Last year she was invited to take over the musical direction of the Kilnhurst Society, for which her cousin, Tom Bamford (picture) is producer. Her first production in this capacity w a s “Jack and the Beanstalk,” and with it came “her most awful moment”: taking the baton before the audience. The pantomime was followed by “No. No Nanette.” An ambitious production for the society. There was only one score, and the whole of the music was taught by Miss Williams from a blackboard.
One of her remaining ambitions may yet be realised at Kilnhurst: to play in a “straight” play.