Photograph
Royal Manchester College Of Music (RMCM)
1920

This rather charming chap is Hamilton Harris (good name). Here he is ready to perform at Glastonbury Festival. Not the Glasto of more recent legendary fame but the original Glastonbury Festival, founded in 1914 upon socialist, liberal and Utopian values in the arts. There's a rather lovely circular narrative to the story here: Glastonbury was chosen as the site for the festival because of its ties with the ancient legend of King Arthur. Harris is here dressed as Uther, fabled father of King Arthur, for the opera "The Birth of Arthur". This opera was written in 1909 by Rutland Boughton and Reginald Buckley who, in 1914, founded the Glastonbury Festival. Lovely.

Reference: AB/215