The following week we started rehearsals, there were nine people in the company and we got on very well together. We gave our first performance in a theatre in Liverpool and then at Southsea for two weeks where we were told that an advance manager would come to see the show in order to make advance bookings. His name was Stephen Lopez and he knew Mr Chamier having toured their show the previous year. We were all introduced to him and I was rather impressed but was surprised when one morning after rehearsal he asked if he could take me to lunch. From that day he waited for me after the show to take me to my lodgings and we got to know one another quite well. The day came when we were to sail for Gibraltar; I could hardly believe it was happening to me, to live a life entirely different to what mine had been. No more digs as we called our bedsitters on tour, or good and bad landladies; we were going to live in Hotels and have three meals served to us. We arrived at the docks and on seeing the liner a thrill went through me, going on board we were shewn to our cabins, eventually we felt the motion of the boat and knew we were sailing. Our advance manager had gone on ahead of us to book the hotel and
theatre and when we arrived at Gibraltar he was there
waiting for us. On my seeing him again I knew I was attracted to him and I shall in future refer to him as Steve.
He shewed me around and took me over the fort where the Barbary Apes live. We also went over the border to La Linea
and saw a bullfight, which I did not like, although it was all very interesting. A very strange coincidence happened
one day whilst sitting in the hotel. A gentleman came up to us, he looked at me and I at him, he said 'I have met
you somewhere before, now where was it?', I said 'Yes, it was at Captain Brown's house.' His wife was a friend
of my mother's and I had been visiting them and whilst there I sang. This was a Mr Lew Marks who was a theatrical
agent and he had said that he could get me in Bandman's
Musical Company. As I was then only 16 years my mother
had said I was too young to travel abroad, if I had gone I would have met Steve as he was Manager for Bandman's
Company, so I think it was my fate to go to that audition in London.Leaving Gibraltar we were on our way to Egypt. We stopped a day at Marseilles and Steve shewed me around visiting the Palais de Longchamps and the Notre Dame de la Garde. He also took me around the shops and he bought me a pair of shoes. We became very friendly. Once more on board we were on our journey, Port Said, Cairo and Alexandria were most interesting places; we stayed two weeks in each place and bar one show went very well. Unfortunately Anna the opera singer was not received very well so she returned to London. At Port Said some other girls and I helped to pull in a large fishing net from the sea.
The journey through the Suez Canal was so slow one could talk to the people on the banks. I was able to take a snap of the statue of Ferdinand de Lessepes at the entrance of the canal.
We were now on our way to Ceylon and on arriving we saw a lovely country. We stayed at a beautiful hotel in Colombo and I was fascinated with the waiters who were all small men who wore their hair long in pig tails, they were charming people.
Another thing I was surprised to see was a lighthouse standing in the middle of the road. The sandy beach stretched right round the bay. We left Colombo and travelled by train to Kandy up and past paddy fields and tea plantations, the train moved so slowly I was able to lean out and take a snap of the train at a place called Peradeniya. Whilst in Kandy I saw the Buddhist temple of the Tooth and was taken to a place where the elephants who took part in processions were kept. I saw them being bathed and scrubbed with huge brushes, to my delight I was allowed to sit on the back of one and go for a short walk.
Our tour of Ceylon finished, we were on board ship again heading for India. Our next destination was India and we arrived at Madras, very hot there, too hot really but nevertheless we did our show and had a good reception there.
It was there that one day Steve had taken me out, and he said did I know the meaning that he had bought me the shoes?, and I said no, and that they were very nice and I liked them, 'well', he said, 'it's a Spanish custom that when a man wants to marry a girl he buys her a pair of shoes'. I was so surprised I didn't know what to say. Nevertheless he asked me if I would be engaged to him and so we were engaged. He was much older than
I was but he didn't seem old to me and I had really got very fond of him.From Madras we travelled all over India. At Hyderabad Steve obtained permission to go in the Nizam's Palace. It was magnificent, one room contained cabinets filled with glass and china encrusted with precious jewels. The Nizam came to see our show and brought a number of his wives who sat behind a gauze curtain one side of the stage whilst he with some gentlemen sat on the other side of the stage. I was given some silver and enamel buttons by the manager of the theatre which I still have today.
There was a British regiment stationed at Secunderabad. They came to see us and afterwards were introduced to the company, one of the officers asked me if I would like to go riding next morning. Well I had never been close to a horse, much less rode one, but I said yes, much to my grief when I saw the big beast. I was scared stiff. I held on and put on a brave face. I said 'thank you' and that I had enjoyed the ride, next morning the Officer and horse turned up again but I had had enough and I told the servant to tell him I could not join him as I had a very bad headache (not on my head). I was teased for days after by Fred knocking on my door and saying "Betty, your horse wished to speak to you,".
We journeyed on all over India, going to Bombay where we saw the gateway to India, also Calcutta where there was a most unusual sight at the railways station, all over the platforms people were lying down with bundles beside them. We just had to step over them to get in a train; we were told this was nothing unusual, the lower class Indians just packed up their belongings and travelled to the next place. They rode on top of the train, holding onto the door handles at the side of the train, all natives, they were just travelling from one place to another. I had never seen anything like it in my life.
Cathedral
of Calcutta. After a short while I became pregnant but I continued in the show until we went south and reached
Bangalore where Steve had friends who owned a 
tour but as I had not long to wait it was impossible for me to go.