Harold Brighouse was a talented English playwright and author who born in Eccles in 1882. The playwright is a reminder of the talent which has blossomed in our special city, even if it was many years ago.
The Salfordian was born at Inglewood, 25 Ellesmere Avenue in Eccles on July 26 and was the eldest child of John Southworth Brighouse, who was a manager in a cotton spinning firm and his step-mother, Charlotte Amelia Harrison was a schoolteacher and headmistress.
Brighouse was educated at Clarendon Road School in Eccles, which still continues to educate the children of our future today.
After his time at the school he won a scholarship to Manchester Grammar school and he later left at 17-years-old to work as a buyer for a textiles shipping firm.
A few years later in his mid 20’s, he made the bold decision to give up full-time work and concentrate on his writing. So to follow his heart’s desires, in 1900 he attended a summer season of plays by F.R Benson’s company at Manchester’s Royal Theatre.
His summer at the local theatre sparked his interest in drama and in 1902 he made the long journey to London to set up an office for his firm, while he became a regular West End theatregoer to mark a new step in his career.
Shortly after as a ‘gallery first nighter’ he met Emily Lynes, who was a photography assistant. They later married in Lillington, near Leamington Spa and after a promotion at work, Brighouse returned to Manchester where he later became a writer.
Brighouse’s most successful and best known play is Hobson’s Choice. To summarise the play it is a Salford set comedy about gender and social class conventions which premiered in New York in 1915.
He wrote the play in his spare time whilst working for Air Ministry Intelligence during the first World War. Despite the unconventional conditions he wrote the play in, it was a huge success as it was played 256 times at the Apollo theatre in London.
Hobson’s Choice was made into a film three times. The first one was a silent film in 1920 and the second one was a talkie in 1931 and the final and most famous version was made in 1954. The Bafta winning film even featured some Salford locations such as Peel Park and it even starred Salford’s own, Brenda de Banzie.
Brighouse also wrote novels, including Hepplestalls, which concerned a Lancashire mill-owning family during the 19th century. But if that wasn’t enough he also wrote articles and reviews for the Manchester Guardian. But everything always seemed to lead him back to his true passion, plays.
In terms of his non-writing life he was declared unfit for combat in the first World War. So, he joined what later became the Royal Air Force and was seconded to the Air Ministry Intelligence Staff.
His legacy in Salford continues to live on. The University of Salford hold a curated collection at the local History Library which includes a handwritten draft of Hobson’s Choice, along with other fascinating manuscript works, correspondence and theatre programmes.
He was an extensive writer and worked within drama, fiction and journalism. Whilst many of his plays were set in in Lancashire and associated with the northern realism, the works digitalised for the University shows a broader range for comedy such as The Dye Hard and The Desperationist, which was set in London and written under the pseudonym of Olive Conway.
The university’s archive also hold a volume of interesting travel essays which people can see themselves.
Sadly, In 1958 he collapsed in the Strand (a major street in the city of London) and he unfortunately died the next day in Charing Cross Hospital. He died on July 25 which was just one day shy of his 76th birthday.
