1. George Dryden Wheeler, known as Leo Dryden, was born in London, the son of Sarah Ann and George Kingman Wheeler.
11 Facts About Leo Dryden
1. 2.
Leo Dryden became a music hall entertainer, and was best known as the Kipling of the Halls, noted for his patriotic and colonial songs including "The Miner's Dream of Home".
3.
The couple split up and Leo Dryden kept his son because of Hannah's mental instability.
4.
Leo Dryden was not reunited with her son Wheeler until 1918, when he joined her and her older two sons, his half-brothers, in the United States.
5.
In 1897, Leo Dryden married singer Marie Tyler in London.
6.
Leo Dryden performed parodies, including "Shopmates" and one on "Funiculi Funicula".
7.
At the start of World War I, Leo Dryden returned to patriotic songs with "Call Us and We'll Soon Be There".
8.
Leo Dryden appeared in The Lady of the Lake, an early sound film inspired by the Walter Scott poem.
9.
Leo Dryden is the paternal grandfather of rock musician Spencer Dryden, the drummer for Jefferson Airplane.
10.
Will Godwin and Leo Dryden wrote The Miner's Dream of Home in 1891.
11.
Leo Dryden sang it in the music halls for many years and recorded it on 27 August 1898 on a Berliner disc E2013.