1940s: ENSA, The Entertainments National Service Association

All the arts, including ballet, played their own part in the war effort.

The Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) was the brainchild of one man. Basil Dean began his career in repertory theatre, working his way up to become the first director of Liverpool Repertory Theatre in 1911. He was awarded an MBE for his services to national entertainment as the head of War Office theatres during the First World War but through the 1920s and 30s worked in the film industry as a producer.

Like so many elements of the ‘war machine’, the early development of ENSA actually began well before war was declared in September 1939. As the political situation in Europe changed through the late 1930s Basil Dean realised both that war was inevitable, and that entertaining the troops would become an important issue.

Dean was determined to make sure that when war began, an organisation providing entertainment for the troops should be in place. An organisation of that scale needed ministerial approval, which came through in May 1939. The finance required was secured through a collaboration with NAAFI (the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes), who would undertake financial responsibility for the new organisation.

ENSA rapidly became a huge and complicated organisation, which was controlled from headquarters in the requisitioned Drury Lane theatre. At Drury Lane artistes were divided into groups which then became the basis for a performing troupe. All new shows were rehearsed at Drury Lane before being sent out on tour. Seamstresses based at Drury Lane battled to make costumes for hundreds of performers within the restrictions of the rationing system. According to a Pathe news reel from 1945, the costume department in the Drury Lane headquarters was turning out up to 500 costumes a week.

Many people also worked for ENSA in administration, bent on solving the logistical nightmare of trying to get groups of performers to the remote corners of the world that British troops found themselves in as the war developed.

The audiences ENSA was performing to were as variable as the venues. In 1942 a huge spectacle, the Anthology in Praise of Britain was performed on the steps of St Paul’s for a crowd of thousands. But at the other end of the spectrum many ENSA performances were witnessed by a handful of recuperating soldiers lying in their hospital beds.

ENSA was not always appreciated, and in a joke made by comedian Tommy Trinder was nicknamed ‘Every Night Something Awful’. Basil Dean received criticism throughout the war for the inconsistent quality of ENSA entertainers, but looking at the scale and scope of what he achieved it is hard to look back on ENSA’s war-time activities with anything less than admiration.

When it came to quality, ENSA simply had to do the best they could with the disparate range of performers who ended up in the ENSA uniform. Big stars were often willing to come and take part in one-off high profile events, a way of being seen to contribute to ‘the War effort’ and demonstrate national pride. However there were also some well-known performers who turned down highly-paid work in order to work on long tours or play gigs to thousands of troops behind the front lines. For example in 1945 Sir Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson were made honorary lieutenants in the Army and were sent by ENSA on a six-week tour of Europe performing Shakespeare plays.

In his role as a film producer Basil Dean had been instrumental in establishing George Formby as one of Britain’s most popular film stars. Formby was very keen to perform for ENSA and throughout the war he performed for Dean on tours at home and abroad. In his biography of Formby David Bret writes that ‘In fifty-three days they would cover much of North Africa, Italy and Sicily, Malta, Libya, Gibraltar, Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine, – thirteen countries, clocking up 25,000 miles and entertaining over 750,000 troops. George proved so popular that the Eighth Army made him their mascot, a worthy honour.’

However, many of Dean’s ENSA performers were far from star quality. One problem Dean faced was that although ENSA provided a regular source of work for performers, he could only offer a low wage. This meant that many professional performers preferred to carry on their careers working in the London theatres. For some artists working for ENSA meant that they were not only working long hours, and in uncomfortable or even dangerous situations, but they were also taking a pay cut.

There were also of course some performers for whom ENSA was a real career break, reviving their floundering career in entertainment. ENSA provided regular paid employment for thousands of performers who had previously struggled to find work in working men’s clubs and regional repertory theatres.
ENSA on the Home Front.

From a logistical point of view, even in the UK getting a group of entertainers to remote military bases could be difficult. In London the theatres were regularly plagued by bombing raids. Across the country roads were blacked out, street signs taken down, food and clothing was rationed and petrol could be hard to get hold of – but ENSA managed to overcome these difficulties to reach military personal even if they were stationed in a field in the middle of nowhere.

In order to provide entertainment for any military group who required it, ENSA had to be very flexible in terms of what it could provide. This meant that if a well-provisioned Garrison Theatre was available, then an ambitious variety show, ballet or play could be performed, but if the ‘stage’ was a few planks slung over oil cans then a suitable solo entertainer could still be provided. One such solo performer, ENSA pianist Catherine Lovatt write that ‘One of my first questions on arriving at a venue was ’’What is the piano like”? It really was a lottery. You just never knew what the instrument was like, and of course, anyone could play on it, so a lot of them were treated badly, notes not playing, pedals not working, not to mention various liquids being spilt on and in the piano! However you just had to get on with it and probably nobody noticed except me, because the audiences were so appreciative, which made it all worthwhile.’

The main groups of entertainers that ENSA employed were dancers, singers, musicians, comedians and actors (as well as some rather odd ‘variety’ acts). These performers were usually formed into variety shows which provided a ‘bit of everything’ – an approach that meant theoretically everyone in an audience would enjoy at least part of the show. Drury Lane was meant to thoroughly rehearse each show, but once a show was on tour there was very little input until they returned home.

In his 1941 article on ENSA for Picture Post, JB Priestly identified one problem with ENSA comedy – it was regularly criticised for being too ‘blue’. ‘I told Mr. Dean Frankly that I had heard complaints. From people who were my no means prudes, that some ENSA shows were spoilt by being too “blue”. […] What happened, of course, is that the comedians , after they had left Drury Lane far behind, could not resist the temptation of playing for guffaws from the back and so let it rip.

As the war developed and military forces moved into different theatres of war, ENSA performers followed them. ENSA sent performers into foreign locations as soon as it was deemed safe – although many found themselves perilously close to the front lines (and remember, ENSA performers may have had a uniform, but they were unarmed and untrained in military matters). After D-Day ENSA entertainers made their way into Europe, and as the North Africa campaign developed and the Axis armies were pushed back, ENSA troupes travelled thousands of miles on tours of military encampments located deep in the desert.

Towards the end of the war many tours were arranged of India, the Middle, and Far East.

Celia Nicholls, an ENSA entertainer who toured India in 1945 remembers, ‘In India because of the long distances between the places we were travelling to we had a special ENSA rail coach with sleeping compartments and a kitchen to make our tea and cook some food. In Calcutta the department for entertainment for the servicemen was really quite good. We had various groups of musicians, including a string sections which could be added on to the dance band I was with, and we would call it the ENSA Dance Orchestra.’

The singer and comic actress Joyce Grenfell travelled extensively with ENSA. With her pianist Viola Tunnard, she was sent to many venues too small or remote to accommodate a bigger show. In 1944 Grenfell and Tunnard spent 5 months touring the Middle East. Grenfell’s biographer Janie Hampton gives a scary insight into the sort of dangers that ENSA performers could run into. ‘Second Lieutenants Grenfell and Tunnard embarked at Liverpool on troopship D19[…]. This was only the third convoy to be heading for the Mediterranean and the risk of air attack during the two-week journey was high. The previous convoy had been dive-bombed by twenty-seven German planes in the Strait of Gibraltar, missing the D19 by only feet and sinking three other ships, one of which was carrying ENSA artists. Half an orchestra was picked up by a British destroyer, still clutching their instruments, and that night they gave a concert to their rescuers.’

Throughout the war ENSA entertainers performed in difficult and dangerous conditions, working long hours on low wages to boost the morale of troops at home and abroad. Although in popular culture it has been the butt of jokes, ENSA has become one of the most fondly remembered aspects of life during WW2. In its original form ENSA was disbanded in 1946. However Basil Dean’s vision, to improve morale by entertaining the forces, carried on. ENSA was replaced with the ‘Combined Services Entertainments’, which continues to this day.