Basil Hallam

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Basil Hallam (1889-1916) was an English actor and singer. He created the character of Gilbert the Filbert for The Passing Show, the original revue of that title by Herman Finck, produced at the Palace Theatre, London, on 20 April 1914. He also recorded the title song for the HMV label on 4 June 1914.

His death in action two years later is described by Rudyard Kipling in The Irish Guards in the Great War, Vol. 2 1916 - Salient and the Somme:

On a windy Sunday evening at Couin, in the valley north of Bus-les-Artois, the men saw an observation-balloon, tethered near their bivouacs, break loose while being hauled down. It drifted towards the enemy line. First they watched maps and books being heaved overboard, then a man in a parachute jumping for his life, who landed safely. Soon after, something black, which had been hanging below the basket, detached itself and fell some three thousand feet. We heard later that it was Captain Radford (Basil Hallam). His parachute apparently caught in the rigging and in some way he slipped out of the belt which attached him to it. He fell near Brigade Headquarters. Of those who watched, there was not one that had not seen him at the “Halls” in the immensely remote days of “Gilbert the Filbert, the Colonel of the Nuts.”

The song can be heard on a 2007 release by the Divine Art Record label, The Finck Album, sung by Mart Sander.