Dorothy Squires

Born on 25 March 1918 in Llanelli, Dyfed, Wales, and passing away on 14 April 1998 in Llwynpia, Mid Glamorgan, Wales, Edna May Squires earned acclaim as a forceful, theatrical vocalist whose intensely passionate delivery sustained a devoted following across more than five decades. Her concert appearances, particularly those mounted in the 1970s, drew crowds seeking both diversion and tribute. At eighteen she relocated to London with the aim of establishing herself as a vocalist and took employment at the Burlington Club, where American pianist and bandleader Charlie Kunz first encountered her. She subsequently performed with his ensemble at the Casani Club and delivered her initial radio transmission from that venue. In 1938 she entered the employ of songwriter Billy Reid And His Orchestra, thereby initiating both a professional and personal association that endured until 1951, when she departed to pursue an independent career. Throughout that interval she committed to disc numerous compositions by Reid, among them ‘The Gypsy’, ‘It’s A Pity To Say Goodnight’, ‘A Tree In A Meadow’ and ‘When China Boy Meets China Girl’. During the 1940s, Reid and Squires established themselves as one of the most popular variety double acts on the British circuit, while she appeared regularly on BBC Radio programmes including Melody Lane, Band Parade, Variety Fanfare and Henry Hall’s Guest Night.

Squires registered a UK chart success in 1953 with Reid’s composition ‘I’m Walking Behind You’ and, that same year, wed the young British actor Roger Moore. The couple resided principally in California throughout most of the decade, occasionally undertaking cabaret bookings. Following their contentious separation in 1961, Squires reached the UK Top 30 in tandem with personality pianist Russ Conway via her own song ‘Say It With Flowers’. She also became the first British performer to appear at London’s Talk Of The Town. After a period of limited activity, she funded her own 1968 album, Say It With Flowers, for President Records. Subsequent releases encompassed her interpretation of the Stevie Wonder hit ‘For Once In My Life’, together with ‘Till’ and ‘My Way’, the latter serving as an anthem that suited her with the same precision it had Frank Sinatra. In 1970 her rendering remained on the UK chart for nearly six months and prompted her to engage the London Palladium for a sell-out return concert that met with an ecstatic response; a double album subsequently appeared on Decca Records. Throughout the 1970s Squires resumed headlining engagements across the UK in both concert and cabaret settings, and she also revisited the United States to perform at New York’s Carnegie Hall. In 1974 she again booked the Palladium for a concert commemorating Billy Reid, and in 1979 she issued another double album, With All My Heart. During the 1980s she adopted a semi-retired stance, presenting occasional concerts, one of which yielded the live recording We Clowns - Live At The Dominion (1984) on her own Esban label; she likewise released Three Beautiful Words Of Love on Conifer.

Squires’ professional life remained steeped in contention, and she earned recognition as one of showbusiness’s most active libel litigants, until a judge, citing fatigue with the proceedings, directed that any further actions required prior High Court approval. In 1989 she was removed from her seventeen-bedroom Thames-side residence, once the property of celebrated actress Lily Langtry, and reports indicated her subsequent home faced renewed jeopardy in 1995. Into the early 1990s she continued to perform sporadically, releasing in 1991 The Best Of The EMI Years, a twenty-track anthology encompassing her collaborations with Billy Reid, selected original compositions and several Columbia Records sides from the early 1960s. Following a cancer diagnosis, Squires consigned the remaining pieces of her jewellery to auction, while Roger Moore is reported to have assisted with treatment costs that ultimately could not forestall her death in April 1998.