MATT MONRO (1930-85)
and his 1960s Ewell connection
The 34 year old Matt Monro in 1964.
Public domain image via Wikipedia.
This internationally famous singing star – the “man with the golden voice” and “the singer’s singer”, who sang hits such as “From Russia with love” and “Born Free” – lived in Ewell from 1961 to 1966. As we shall see, his road to fame was more than a little rocky.
He was born in the Finsbury District on 1 December 1930 as Terence Edward Parsons, the fifth and last child of Frederick (a jobbing handyman) and Alice (née Reed) Parsons. (To simplify things, I will refer to him hereafter by his post-WW2 stage name of Matt.)
Matt’s parents had married in August 1923 in St Paul’s Church, Clerkenwell. Their first four children were born between 1914 and 1926 – the second, sadly dying in his birth year of 1915. By the time Matt was born in late 1930, his father’s health was failing. On 12 May 1934, when Matt was 3½, the 40 year old Frederick died at the family home of 3 Raine Street, Stepney. When his mother’s health also failed, Matt was fostered out for a couple of years.
Matt left school at age 14 and tried a succession of jobs, alongside which he exercised his natural singing talent in performances at a number of local venues. In 1948, his time came for 18 months of National Service. Instead, he signed up for a longer term with the Army. After a couple of years, he volunteered for overseas duty and was posted to Hong Kong as a tank driving instructor. While in Hong Kong, he took to entering local talent contests, winning several. (He was such a frequent winner of the local radio Talent Time show that, on 27 June 1953, he was given his own one-off show, Terry Parsons Sings – on condition that he made way for others by not entering any more Talent Time shows!)
Matt’s time in the Army ended in 1953, and he returned to London to try to make a career out of singing. He had little initial success and took on a number of different jobs to make ends meet. These included working as a bus driver (mainly driving Route 27 from Holloway Bus Garage, but also the 418 on the Epsom-Kingston route—during which he would reportedly often serenade his passengers) and working as a milkman from the then Unigate depot in Ruxley Lane.
He also hung around the music publishers’ offices in Denmark Street, occasionally making demos of new songs for their ever-optimistic song-pluggers. Matt’s 1956 demo record of “Polka Dots and Moonbeams” caught the ear of popular Trinidadian pianist, Winifred Atwell. She became his mentor and provided his stage name: “Matt” being the name of a journalist friend; and “Monro” that of her father. On her recommendation, he was signed up by her own recording company, which released a number of his singles and an LP. However, none of these stood out among the recordings of other young male singers of the time who were also striving for real success.
Matt in his bus driving days.
(Press cutting from an unknown source)
Before going further, mention should be made of Matt’s personal life. In 1955 and registered in Islington, the 24 year old Matt married 21 year old Iris Jordan, and they had a son, Mitchell. Sadly, that marriage did not last and, in Enfield on 15 April 1959, the now 28 year old Matt married 25 year old Renate Annette Daisy (always known as “Mickie”) Schuller who worked as a song-plugger. They went on to have two children: Matt junior and Michelle.
Embed from Getty Images
Mickie, Michelle, Matt and Matt junior at home on 1 December 1967, shortly after leaving Ewell.
Photograph courtesy of Getty Images.
In 1961, the couple moved to the semi-detached 14 Ruxley Lane, Ewell – just off the A240 Kingston Road. But he had by then come under the wing of legendary music producer George Martin and his music career began to take off. Their first contact had been in 1959 when George asked Matt to to record the satirical “You Keep Me Swingin’ ” in the style of Frank Sinatra to help Peter Sellers imitate this for his LP “Songs for swingin’ Sellers” – a satirical take on Sinatra’s famous “Songs for swinging’ lovers“. In the event, Sellers liked Matt’s version so much that he used it on the record, although Matt was credited as “Fred Flange.”
Under his own name, Matt then had 1960 singles hits with “Portrait of my love” and “My kind of girl“. In 1961, Matt won ITV’s A Song for Britain with “My Kind of Girl“. Further hits came in 1962 with “Softly as I Leave You” and in 1963 with the title song from the James Bond film “From Russia with Love”.
By now, he was a well-established singer, in much demand for performances both on air and in person at leading venues in the UK and internationally. This was bolstered by a steady stream of well-regarded records and albums. (Mention should also be made of Matt finishing second in the 1964 Eurovision Song Contest, with, “I Love the Little Things“.)
Matt Monro at the height of his fame.
Photograph with thanks to the BBC.
On 16 March 1977, Matt was at London cabaret venue Talk Of The Town where he was about to open a five-week run (in his seventh season at the London venue). He had been led to believe he was there for a press photo shoot to mark what his publicists chose to call his 21 years in show business. Alongside that purpose, however, it was an elaborate ruse (the code name for which was “Carpet”!) to catch Matt off guard for an episode of BBCtv’s This is your Life.
The unsuspecting Matt being surprised by host Eamonn Andrews for “This is your Life”.
Screen shot with thanks to bigredbook.
Matt’s This is your Life was broadcast the following week, 23 March 1977. Among the many paying tribute to Matt were: Winifred Atwell; Don Black; Sammy Davis Jr; Val Doonican; George Martin; The Bachelors; and Frankie Vaughan. Part of Sammy Davis Jr’s tribute was: “I wanted to pay my respects to Matt from one performer to another, even though we live on different sides of the water. We became friends and the real reason I forgave him for singing so good was because I’m taller than him.”
From left to right: Mitchell (child of his first marriage), daughter Michelle, son Matt junior, Wife “Mickie” and Matt.
Screen shot from BBCtv’s “This is your Life”, with thanks to bigredbook.
Matt was a heavy smoker and, in later life, also battled alcoholism. In the mid-1980s, he was diagnosed with liver cancer. He was admitted to the Cromwell Hospital in Kensington where, aged 54, he died on 7 February 1985. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium. The Probate record (of 17 July 1985) notes that his home address had been 1 Dallas Road, London W5 (North Ealing), and that he left an estate of £426,000.
There is no doubting the high regard in which Matt was held by his contemporaries. Frank Sinatra (regarded as the doyen of that generation of singing stars, who was some 15 years older than Matt) once remarked: “If I had to choose three of the finest male vocalists in the singing business, Matt would be one of them.” And, after Matt’s death, Sinatra said: “His pitch was right on the nose; his word enunciation letter perfect; and his understanding of a song thorough. He will be missed very much not only by myself, but by his fans all over the world.”
Following some years of local campaigning, Epsom & Ewell Council agreed to sponsor one of its memorial plaques on Matt’s 1961-66 home of 14 Ruxley Lane. This (see below) was unveiled on 17 May 2022 by Matt Monro Jr who, with the help of the Epsom Male Voice Choir, entertained the hundred or so fans gathered for the occasion with some of his father’s famous hits. (Matt Jr is no mean singer himself, and tours with his show, “The Matt Monro story“, which was in Epsom Playhouse for the second time in mid-2022.
14 Ruxley Lane, Ewell and the newly-placed Borough plaque.
Photographs by Roger Morgan © 2022
(14 Ruxley Lane actually has a prior claim to fame. The house shown above is what was rebuilt after its predecessor was more or less demolished in 1944 by an aircraft crashing on it, as described in our article “Tragedy on the Home Front“.)
Roger Morgan © 2022