REGULARS at the Bradford Civic, later the Playhouse, in the pre and post-war years would have been familiar with local actor Percy Monkman, a fixture at the theatre for over two decades.

Percy first trod the boards in First World War concert parties and went on to be an entertainer in Bradford right through to the late 1960s. Now his colourful life story unfolds in a book, Percy Monkman: An Extraordinary Bradfordian, by his grandson, Martin Greenwood.

The book traces Percy from his early life in a humble Toller Lane community, his role entertaining the troops in both world wars, his love of comedy, acting, painting and Bradford City Football Club. He spent his working life in a bank - he joined Becketts Bank (later Nat West) in 1909, aged 17, and worked there until 1952, in the same Kirkgate office - but by night and at weekends Percy was in theatres across the city, packing audiences in and making ‘em laugh.

Martin researched his grandfather’s life through the many press cuttings, programmes, notes, sketches, jokes and jottings that Percy kept over the years.

Last month the Telegraph & Argus featured the first part of Martin’s book, which looks at Percy’s life in the First World War. He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps as a stretcher-bearer and his love of entertaining - he had been in local theatre revues in Bradford and had collected jokes, painstakingly handwriting and typing them up - led him to join a concert troupe called The Archies. Concert parties were encouraged in the Great War as a vital way of raising soldiers’ morale and keeping boredom at bay between battles. Percy later described his experiences, occasionally performing under shellfire, as “an invaluable apprenticeship”.

Here, in excerpts from Martin Greenwood’s book, we look at how Percy entertained troops once again, in the Second World War, and in Bradford in the years afterwards.

The inter-war years saw Percy performing on local stages, including the Bradford Civic where he’d become an established member, and when war broke out again he returned to his role entertaining soldiers. This time his audiences were returning troops and injured servicemen, scattered across Yorkshire rather than in disused barns in Northern France.

In November, 1940 Percy became the chairman of the newly-formed Bradford Voluntary Wartime Entertainers Association which organised the Bradford Civic Playhouse Concert Party. A pool of performers was drawn upon whenever there was a request for entertainment from organisations such as the RAF and the British Red Cross and performance venues included Bradford parks (for open air concerts, as part of the council’s Holidays at Home wartime initiative) and Harewood House, used as a convalescent home.

Martin writes that putting on shows “quickly became a major undertaking for what as a voluntary effort”.

“The concert party put on some 600 shows between 1940 and 1945. Percy received many positive reviews and comments. For example, a concert party on May 15, 1941 at Bradford’s Cartwright Hall in Lister Park led to a couple of very warm letters.”

In a 1950 talk about his war experiences, Percy said: “We often did four shows per week for troops and charities. Some venues were 30-50 miles away and involved travelling in black-outs.”

As Martin notes: “Percy, as organiser and compere, participated in most if not all these shows. One cannot help thinking about Percy, time after time, arriving home after midnight and having to get up to get to the bank for a 9am start.”

At the end of the war the Civic Concert Party received an official thank you from the Commanding Officer of Northern Command for its contribution to the welfare and morale of troops. Percy was singled out for praise, as the concert party’s leader.

In the post-war years, Percy appeared in shows with friends from the Civic Concert Party. They included an “All-Star Charity Concert” for West Riding Constabulary, sharing the bill with Harry Corbett and Sooty. During the 1950s and 60s the troupe played to packed houses at the Civic Playhouse’s Old Time Music Hall shows.

Percy, who died in 1986, aged 93, was in plays and shows most of his life, with nearly 30 productions at the Bradford Civic, but his final performances for the concert party were on July 4 and 5, 1969 in a programme featuring old friends from his wartime entertaining days. A Telegraph & Argus review commented: “One of its stars was undoubtedly Shipley artist Percy Monkman, whose range of Yorkshire stories was almost inexhaustible”.

Closing this chapter of his life, we leave the last word, and laugh, to Percy, in a line from one of his comedy shows:

“We have some goings-on in our family. There’s 37 of us you know; and the worst of it is we’ve only got three rooms - kitchen, backyard and garden.

“And we’ve only got one chair in our house. We have to take it in turns to sit down. It’s my turn three weeks next Friday.”

* Percy Monkman: An Extraordinary Bradfordian, published by PlashMill Press, £24.49.