Joseph M. Wharncliffe

Joseph M. Wharncliffe was the pen name of the actor Jack Armitage. From at the latest 1909 he acted with Hilda Beverley for whose touring company he wrote When There Was War (in the database under J. M. Wharncliffe). He also acted in the play until he joined the South Lancashire Regiment in April 1915. He inserted theatrical cards in The Stage, 4 May and 3 August 1916, as ‘Private Jack Armitage, N. 17831 (Joseph M. Wharncliffe), 7th South Lancashire Regiment, 19th Division, British Expeditionary Force, France. Pleased to hear from old friends’. A card that he inserted in The Stage, 3 August 1916, gave his address as The Rest, Porthcawl, S. Wales, which was built as a convalescent hotel in the early 1860s and used as an auxiliary military hospital from 1915. The National Archives has a medal roll index card for 17831 Private Jack Armitage of the South Lancashire Regiment, and of the Labour Corps, the latter being a unit to which wounded soldiers were often transferred who had recovered but were no longer fit for front-line service. The latest references to Wharncliffe / Armitage that have been found are in The Stage, 4 November 1937, which reported that They Walked in Terror, a new play by Walter A. Chapman and Joseph M. Wharncliffe, was to be produced at the New Queen’s, Glasgow; and in The Stage, 15 July 1943, which advertised a new revue Pick Your Fancy with musical numbers by a (this??) Jack Armitage. Otherwise no biographical information has been found.