15 Facts About Bud Flanagan

Bud Flanagan was best known as being one half of the comedy and music act Flanagan and Allen with his partner Chesney Allen.

Bud Flanagan was born in Whitechapel, in the East End of London.

Bud Flanagan sailed with the SS Majestic to New York, and jumped ship when it arrived in the US.

Bud Flanagan joined a vaudeville show that toured across the US, whilst in October 1914, he sailed with a show to perform in New Zealand and Australia.

Bud Flanagan travelled to perform on stage in South Africa, where he met his brother Alec, who was living there at the time.

Bud Flanagan returned to Britain in 1915 and enlisted as "Robert" Weintrop; he joined the Royal Field Artillery, and was sent with his unit to fight in France.

Newspaper reports indicate that Bud Flanagan had gone solo by 1924 and was gaining an increasing audience.

Bud Flanagan is best remembered as part of a double act with Chesney Allen, billed as Flanagan and Allen.

The vocals were distinctive because, while Bud Flanagan was at least a competent singer and sang the melody lines, Allen used an almost spoken delivery to provide the harmonies.

Allen semi-retired in 1945 and Bud Flanagan increasingly became a solo performer, although the two of them still appeared together on occasion, including for the 1957 TV series Together Again.

In 1959, Bud Flanagan was awarded the OBE, and received the award from the Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace.

Bud Flanagan was a member of the entertainment charitable fraternity, the Grand Order of Water Rats.

The song was an affectionate pastiche of the sort of songs Bud Flanagan had sung during the war.

Bud Flanagan met his wife Anne, daughter of Irish comedian Johnny Quinn, who was a dancer in "Mrs Stacey's Young Ladies".

Bud Flanagan went on to become an actor and a night club entertainer.