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Leicester Tunks (1880 – 4 July 1935) was an English opera singer remembered as a principal baritone with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1904 to 1916. He served in World War I and later ran a poultry farm.
For D'Oyly Carte's Second London Repertory season at the Savoy Theatre from April to October 1908 Tunks played Pish-Tush in The Mikado and Bill Bobstay in H.M.S. Pinafore,Wearing, p. 423 while in August 1908 he briefly appeared as the Mikado during the temporary absence of Henry Lytton. On 15 October 1908 he married Ethel Rose New Child (1880–1937) in London. London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754–1932 for Leicester Tunks, Camden, St George, Bloomsbury, 1880–1908: Ancestry.com Their daughter was Phyllis Ethel Tunks (1910–2005).
On his return to touring in October 1908 Tunks' roles were Captain Corcoran in Pinafore, the Pirate King in Pirates, Archibald Grosvenor in Patience, Mountararat in Iolanthe, Florian in Ida, the title role in The Mikado, Sergeant Meryll in Yeomen, and Giuseppe in Gondoliers. Leicester Tunks, Opera Scotland, accessed 7 September 2020 While touring in Scotland in about 1909 Tunks and the Company were snowed in for 12 hours between Dundee and Aberdeen. With the blizzard raging outside the train no one had thought to bring refreshments as ordinarily the journey was a short one. Coincidentally, it was Tunks' birthday, and he having little faith in the eatables provided by theatrical landladies had obtained a large steak and kidney pie with various other confections plus a few bottles of spirits and beer to share with his friends in the digs. Instead, these were shared among all those present who merrily toasted Tunks for saving them all from starvation.Francois Cellier and Cunningham Bridgeman, Gilbert and Sullivan and Their Operas, Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1914) pp. 390–391
From March 1914 to November 1915 Tunks was temporarily switched to the role of Strephon in Iolanthe. Being tall he was able to wear Mountararat's Garter robes to great effect, while his Pirate King's gesture to Major-General Stanley on the line "We look over it" did just that. His Grosvenor in Patience did not speak with the traditional Cockney accent in his final scenes but instead used a more animated tone than that he used earlier for the idyllic poet and his Captain Corcoran in Pinafore actually serenaded the moon instead of the audience. His Mikado's laugh was more bloodcurdling but briefer than that adopted by some later portrayers of the role. Review of The Mikado, The Gramophone, June 1927, p. 14
In his later years Tunks lived in Birmingham in Warwickshire, and here he died in July 1935 aged 54. Leicester Tunks in the England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916–2007: Ancestry.com In his will he left £402 6s 7d to his widow, Ethel Rose New Tunks. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1995 for Leicester Tunks, 1935: Ancestry.com
Later years
In December 1916 Tunks left the D'Oyly Carte to join the Army during World War I, ending the War as a 2nd Lieutenant. Leicester Tunks, Army List, Monthly Army Lists (1914–1918), Supplement to the Monthly Army List, p. 148 After the cessation of hostilities in 1918 Tunks ran a poultry farm in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight. UK, City and County Directories, 1766–1946 for Leicester Tunks, England, Hampshire, 1920 Kelly´s Directory: Ancestry.com
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