THE D'OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY

Ernest Pike

Herbert Payne (1887-88)

[Born Pimlico, London, 1871, died Streathham, South London 4 Mar 1936]

"Mr. H. Payne" was a chorister (one of the ghosts of ancestors in Ruddigore) with Mr. D'Oyly Carte's "B" Company on tour from April 1887 to at least February 1888. He was, in reality, the sixteen-year old tenor Ernest George Pike, who would go on to become one of the most popular recording artists of the Edwardian era.

Pike went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music, followed by further private music education. In the early 1890s he was appointed principal tenor at Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Street, London. He later sang in the London Ballad Concerts and embarked on an extensive concert schedule in London and on tour. He begain his recording career in 1904.

His first recording was "Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes" from The Gondoliers in 1904. He would later appear on HMV sets of The Mikado (1906 and 1917), The Yeomen of the Guard (1907 and 1920), H.M.S. Pinafore (1908), The Gondoliers (1919), and Patience (1922), as well as Edward German's Merrie England (1918).

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