Bernard Rolt

Bernard’s father, Henry George Rolt – a clergyman – hated all his children but reserved a special hatred for Bernard, who he held responsible for killing his wife in giving birth to him.
Bernard’s nephew, John Rolt, writes, “To spite him my grandfather sent him successively to three public schools – Winchester, Haileybury and Brighton College – removing him each time when he appeared to be doing well – my grandfather also made life fairly miserable for all his children by for instance selling the horses when he found they liked riding and the piano when Bernard showed musical talent.”
Perhaps it is not surprising that someone so bullied and hated by his own father should become a bit of a dilettante, and the fact that Bernard survived at all is a testament to his strength of character. Dilettante or not Bernard studied at the Guildhall and in Paris. Apart from song music he also wrote several musicals, writing both music and songs for Mr Flame, The Man From Now, all comic operas, and others, including Glittering Gloria (Criterion Theatre, Aug-Nov 1907), and Mother Goose (a ‘musical extravaganza’) which was one of the first plays in the then newly-built New Amsterdam theatre on Broadway and ran from Dec. 1903 to Feb 1904. It contains songs such as Always Leave Them Laughing When You Say Goodbye, and Everybody’s Loved By Someone. He also wrote Valse Melba, a more melancholic piece. His nephew, John Rolt, always said that Bernard was her lover, at least for a while, but it isn’t clear.A biography of the diva claims; “Melba, as we have seen, was by no means a Puritan. She liked the admiration of her men friends. One of the most devoted of them was Haddon Chambers, the well-known playwright. … Another was Bernard Rolt – to whom she left £1,000 – an extremely attractive young man who wrote songs of the drawing-room type. They both accompanied Melba and Lady Stracey, who was then young and very beautiful, to Venice one summer, and the two ladies had an amusing time playing off one against the other.”
Be that as it may, it seems that Bernard and Melba had a very close and easy relationship. Bernard once sent her a telegram before her Gala performance at Covent Garden reading ‘Watch those top notes’.
In a letter written on New Year’s Eve in 1931 from Australia, Melba wrote, “Bernard dear, I loved hearing from you: but darling you cannot leave England – England is Bernard and Bernard is England – oh God how changed everything is. I have had a very unhappy time and I shall be glad to get away. I leave on the Naldera the 10^th Feb. do come and stay with me in April or May […] ”
Bernard was no fool, and despite being called a dilettante he clearly worked hard at his songs, music and several novels.