Billie Rutherford

Billie Rutherford real name Gertrude Rosina Friedericksen was born in Cardiff on the 29^th August 1891. Her father was a Danish seaman and her mother was Welsh. She married Arthur Griffiths in 1912 and gave birth two three children between 1912 & 1914. When Arthur left to join the Army she decided that domesticity and motherhood was not to be part of her plan. She left the children in the care of the National Children’s Home and embarked on a career as a Variety Artiste, Dancer and Soubrette which took her around the country to places as far apart as the Palace Theatre Aberdeen and Hippodrome Dover. I have put together data gleaned from her autograph album and photograph collection although many entries do not mention a production only the name of the theatre, name of person and date. She married for the second time in 1939 to Eric Tristan Simons an Army Captain, although we were to find out later that her first husband Arthur was still alive and living in Michigan USA, he had also married again and had another family although neither of them had obtained a divorce! In later life she became a demonstrator at exhibitions and in shops and also worked in the umbrella department at John Barkers in Kensington for many years, where she was well loved by the staff. She died in 1972 aged 81 in Paddington.