Jennie Renton, the Lancashire opera singer (1887-1956)

Jane (known as Jennie), was born in Accrington in 1887, the daughter of George Renton, a police sergeant, and his wife Ann. She grew up at Stanley Street and Avenue Parade, Accrington, and spent her teenage years working as a cotton weaver.

Jennie was first mentioned in newspaper articles from 1904 as a contralto in Weslyan Churches in the Accrington area. It's said she was a pupil of the Parisian Marchesi, and she possessed “a pleasing vocal organ”. By 1909, she was popular enough to be performing at St George’s Hall in Liverpool, and by 1912 Jennie was also advertising her services as a teacher of singing and voice production.

A document advertising Jennie's services, shared with kind permission from Jennie's great-nephew Jeremy Foster.

Jennie took part several charity concerts. For example, she is mentioned taking part in a concert to raise funds for the bereaved relatives of the Titanic musicians in May 1912. A few days after Armistice in  November 1918, she hosted a Concert Party at the Wesleyan Schoolroom at Whalley in aid of soldiers, where the Orchestra from the Queen Mary Military Hospital entertained the audience.

She continued performing and teaching locally throughout the twenties and thirties. In 1929-1933, she was still living at Rossett Cottage, Avenue Parade, Accrington, but received pupils at The Studio, Pollard’s, Market Street, Burnley.

A vintage postcard of the Fushimi Maru, image credit to Adam Bell.

By the second half of the thirties, Jennie was living at 130 Bradford Street, Bolton. In April 1938, she wrote her will, and then a few days later she travelled to Hong Kong on the Fushimi Maru, a journey which would have taken around 40 days. The passenger list states her occupation as singer; family don't know why she was travelling, but it's assumed it was for work purposes. Aged 52, Jennie was back at Bradford Street by September 1939, where she was living with her younger sister Ethel, who was a confectioner and grocer.

By 1956, 69-year-old, Jennie had semi-retired from teaching, and was moving from Bolton to live at Heath Charnock, close to her sister-in-law Ada Renton. On moving day on 05 November 1956, she was crossing over Chorley Road and carrying something from one house to another, when was was sadly fatally injured by a lorry. A subsequent newspaper report stated that she was said to have had a “bad habit of walking with her head down”, and was always “at the rush”.