Bert Brantford and Harry Ford … two Comerford brothers who regularly shared music hall and stage billings with their stage names
Patrick Comerford
An interesting Comerford family in London was associated with the theatre music halls and movies at the end of the 19th century and for much of the first half of the 20th century.
Two Comerford brothers, Bert and Harry, married two Sipple sisters, Aggie and Rosina, and almost created a theatrical and movie dynasty.
Albert (Bert) Alfred G Comerford was a composer who used the stage name Bert Brantford. He was born in London on 23 December 1879. He played a significant supporting role for his brother, composing many of his songs. Bert’s wife, Agnes Violet (Aggie) Sipple, was an actor who used the stage name Agnes Brantford. She was known for her roles in a number of films, including Everything is Rhythm (1936), A Will and a Way (1922) and The Last Post (1929).
Bert’s brother, Harry Comerford, used the stage name Harry Ford. He married Aggie’s sister, Rosina Sipple. The Sipple sisters’ mother, Betsy (Asher), was a vocalist and musician.
Bert Comerford and Aggie Brantford were was the parents of two actors who also used the stage name Brantford: Michael Richard Henry Comerford (1912-1984), who starred as ‘Mickey Brantford’, and Agnes Violet Rebecca Comerford (1915-2008), who as a child actor with the name ‘Aggie Brantford’ had roles in Second to None (1927) and Carry On! (1927)
But the family is also interesting because the Sipple sisters who married the Comerford brothers are descended from some of the most interesting Sephardi Jewish families in Europe. Many of their immediate ancestors were married in the Bevis Marks Synagogue in London, and they could trace their ancestry directly to leading Sephardi families who lived in Amsterdam, Livorno, Venice and Seville, including Spanish Marrano families who had been forced to convert to Christianity in Seville during the Inquisition but had maintained their Jewish faith and practices in their private family and domestic life.
The Sipple family:
John James Sipple (1831-1873) married Rosemary (‘Rosina’) Mary Anne Hambrook (ca 1834-1895). In the 1891 census, Rosina Sipple was living at 10 Seldon Street, West Derby, Liverpool. She was born ca 1834/1835 in Rotherhithe. She was a widow, aged 56. She died 18 May 1895.
Their children included:
1, John James Sipple (1853-1905), comedian, actor, born Blackfriars, London, in 1853, of whom next.
2, Henry Sipple, aged 28 in 1891, born in Whitechapel, described in the census as ‘imbecile,’ and living with his widowed mother in West Derby, Liverpool.
3, Agnes Ann (Sipple) Nolan, who used the stage name Agnes Hazel. She seems to have married her first husband Edward Scott in Sunderland in 1884 and to have had a son Herbert Scott, who was born in Newcastle ca 1886 and who was living with his grandmother, aged 5, in 1891. Agnes moved to Australia and was living in Melbourne at the time of her mother’s death in 1895. There she married the comedian and music hall star Michael Nolan, who died in January 1910. Their children included a son and daughter:
● 1a, Herbert (Bert) Nolan.
● 2a, Agnes (Aggie) Nolan.
The eldest son in this family was:
John James Sipple (1853-1905), comedian, actor, born in Blackfriars in 1853. He was aged 38 in 1891. In 1876, he married Elizabeth (Bessie or Betsy) Asher. Bessie was born in Whitechapel, London, ca 1858, the daughter of David Asher (1812-1866) of Birmingham and London, and his wife Sarah Cohen (1814-1895); see below. Betsy was aged 32 in 1891, a vocalist and musician, and they were living with his widowed mother in West Derby, Liverpool in 1891. John James Sipple died on 12 October 1905 in Southamton.
They were the parents of five children:
1, William Sipple, born in Birmingham ca 1879/1880, living with his parents and grandmother in West Derby, Liverpool 1891, aged 11.
2, Rosina Sarah (Sipple) Comerford (1881-1958), born 23 February 1881 in Liverpool, baptised 10 October 1882, Saint Silas, Pembroke Place, Liverpool; aged 10 in 1891. She married Harry William John Comerford (1874-1955), the brother of Agnes Sipple’s husband, Albert AG Comerford. He used the stage name Harry Ford. (See below).
3, George Ayton Sipple (1882-1957), born in Scotland in 18 November 1882, died 25 October 1957.
4, Agnes Violet (Aggie) Sipple (1884-1965), born 30 October 1884 in Dundee, aged 7 in 1891, and living with her parents and grandmother in Liverpool. She married Albert (Bert) Alfred George Comerford (1879-1973), the brother of Rosina Sipple’s husband, Harry William John Comerford. She died on 15 July 1965 in Brighton. (See below).
5, Michael Joseph Sipple (1891-1940), later Michael Joseph Sipple-Asher. He was born in South Shields, Durham, in 1891, and was aged 2 months at the 1891 census, when he was living with his parents and grandmother in Liverpool. He married Florence Kate … They lived at 91 Tamworth Lane, Mitcham, Surrey. Michael, Kate and their daughter Michelle died together when their home in Mitcham was hit by a bomb on 5 November 1940. They were also the parents of:
1a, John Flockton Sipple-Asher, who was evacuated to Weston Super-Mare and was not in Mitcham on the night of 5 November 1940. He married Ermine Sue Proudfit (1928- 2015) and they were the parents of a daughter Susan (‘Susie’ Kate Sipple-Asher (1960-1992) and a son Michael John Sipple-Asher (born 1962, Toronto Canada), the father of four daughters who continue the Sipple-Asher name.
Michael Comerford (Mickey Brantford) in the movie ‘Mr Cohen takes a Walk’
The Comerford family:
William Comerford (ca 1771- ), was born in Ireland ca 1771. He married Sophia Clarkson ( -1869), and they were the parents of:
John Comerford (ca 1791-ca 1839), was born in Ireland ca 1791, lived in Lambeth, and died ca 1839. He married Mary Cody (1791–1847), and they were the parents of:
Michael Comerford (1814-1867). He was born ca 1814, in Deptford, then in Kent but now part of the East End of London. He married Mary Whitehead (1817-1881), born in Westminster, daughter of Dennis Whitehead. They were married in Saint John the Evangelist Church, Lambeth, on 10 October 1837. He worked as a law stationer’s clerk. They were living at 13 Regency Square, Lambeth, in 1861. He died in 1867, she died in 1881. They were the parents of eight children:
1, John Comerford, born 1839, aged 22 in 1861, working as a porter to a fancy box maker.
2, Michael Comerford, born 1843, aged 18 in 1861, a porter to a paper marbler.
3, Ellen, born 1847, aged 14 in 1861, married George Harris.
4, Alice, born 1849, aged 12 in 1861, married George Worrall.
5, Henry Comerford (1850-1918), of whom next.
6, Emily, born 1853, aged 8 in 1851.
7, Ann, born 1856, aged 5 in 1861.
8, James Comerford, born post 1861.
Their fifth named child:
Henry Comerford (1850-1918) was born in Lambeth September 1851 and died in 1918. He was a stereotyper (printer). On 24 November 1872, he married in Saint John the Evangelist Church, Walworth, Rosena Emily Dunn (1856-1912). She was born in Clifton, Bristol, in 1856, the daughter of William Dunn (1829- ) and Levina (Hember) (1837-1894). He died in Wandsworth in December 1918; she died in London in December 1912. They were the parents of two sons:
1, Harry William John Comerford (1874-1955), of whom next.
2, Albert (Bert) Alfred George Comerford (1879-1973), of whom later.
The first named son:
Harry William John Comerford (1874-1955) was a popular music hall and variety comedian and actor under the stage name of Harry Ford
Harry William John Comerford (1874-1955) was born in Newington, Southwark, on 21 August 1874. He was a popular music hall and variety comedian and actor under the stage name of Harry Ford. He married on 7 April 1903 in Saint James’s Church, Clapham Park, Rosina Sarah Sipple (1881-1958), whose sister Aggie married Albert (Bert) George Comerford (1879-1973), known on stage as Bert Brantford.
Harry made his first appearance on stage as a boy in 1887 at the Elephant and Castle Theatre. His first music hall performance was at the Middlesex Music Hall in a sketch called Young Fred, and he went on to became a music hall star. He sang some of the most original and amusing songs the halls had ever heard and his brother, Bert Comerford, played a significant supporting role as composer of many of those songs.
Although Harry was at his peak while the likes of Dan Leno, Marie Lloyd and George Robey dominated bill-topping positions at the Tivoli, Oxford, and the Pavilion, London, he regularly took his place on these bills for several years in the late 1890s and early 1900s and held his own. Indeed, at the London Pavilion in particular, he was a recognised favourite for many years. He frequently did top bills throughout London, as well as in the major provincial cities. The Variety Theatre once described him as a true star of the Metropolis.
Harry Comerford (Harry Ford) died in Birmingham on 31 March 1955, aged 80. Rosina died at 54 Southam Road, Birmingham, on 28 February 1958.
Harry Comerford (Harry Ford) and his wife Rosina Sipple were the parents of two daughters and three sons:
1, Rosina Elizabeth Agnes (Rose) (1904–1995), born 10 January 1904, Wandsworth, London. She married on 28 August 1926, in Saint Alban’s Church, Streatham Park, Edward Stanley Ripley (1894–1982). Edward was a former choirboy in the Temple Church, London (1904), and was a choirboy at the coronation of George V in Westminster Abbey on 22 June 1911. He was a shipping clerk with the P&O Shipping line, and then the P&O manager in Birmingham. Edward died on 15 October 1982 at 255 Highfield Road, Hall Green, Birmingham; Rose died in November 1995 at Highcroft House, Crown Lane, Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield. They were the parents of four children, including:
● 1a, John Edward Austin (Jack) Ripley (1927–2013), of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. He married Joyce J Cartwright (1923-2013) in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire. They were the parents of five children.
● 2a, Keith Austin Ripley (1929-2023). He was born 24 September 1929 at Clevedon, Rose Hill Park West, Sutton, Surrey. He married in Birmingham in January 1958 and was the father of children. He died in Walsall Manor Hospital 26th December 2023.
2, (Flight-Lieutenant) Harry Alfred George Comerford (1905-1956), AFC. He was born on 15 August 1905 in Wandsworth. He was posted to India in 1928 and was at the North-West Frontier in 1930-1931. He moved to 31 Squadron at Quetta on 18 March 1932 became Adjutant. He went to the UK on leave on 20 December 1932. He was posted back permanently on 22 November 1933. He married on 5 November 1931 in Ambala, Bengal Georgiana Alicia Betty Davidson (1903-2001); she was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, on 11 November 1903. He was a flight-lieutenant in the RAF during the Battle of Britain. After World War II, they were living in Sutton and Cheam, Surrey, in 1945, and Basingstoke, Hampshire, in 1948. He died 13 September 1956 at New Walk Leicester; Georgiana later lived in Cambridge (1960) and died in May 2001 in Chiltern, Buckinghamshire. Their children included:
● 1a, Jane Ann Alicia Comerford (1933-2016), born Aldershot. She married Keith G Whittam ( -1971) in January 1958 in Holborn, London.
● 2a, Peter Francis Comerford (1938-2006), born Ayr.
3, Georgina Comerford (1909-2001). She was born on 4 August 1909, she lived in Epsom in the 1930s, and died on 23 December 2001 in Lincolnshire. She married Cedric WG Dann (1914–1959).
4, Leonard Jack Comerford (1914-1993). He was born on 16 February 1914 in Wandsworth. He married in Croydon in 1940 Lilian Rapley (1920–2011). He was in the RASC during World War II, and became a prisoner-of-war in Germany. They had two children. He died in January 1993 in Boston, Lincolnshire; she died in Birmingham 3 May 2011.
5, John Comerford (1924-1996). He was born in Wandsworth, London, on 2 January 1924. He was married twice and had children. He died in April 1996 in Leicester.
Harry Comerford was a brother of:
Albert (Bert) Alfred George Comerford (1879-1973) was a brother of Harry Comerford (Harry Ford). He used the stage name of Bert Brantford. He was born at 30 Henshaw Sttreet, Newington, Lambeth, London, on 23 December 1879. He married Agnes Violet (Aggie) Sipple (1884-1965), sister of Rosina (Sipple) Comerford. Aggie was born on 30 October 1884 in Dundee, Scotland. She was aged 7 in 1891 and was living with her parents and grandmother in West Derby, Liverpool.
As an actor, Aggie Comerford used the stage name Agnes Brantford. She was known for her parts in Everything is Rhythm (1936), A Will and a Way (1922) and The Last Post (1929). She died on 15 July 1965 in Brighton, Sussex.
Bert Comerford died in Richmond upon Thames in June 1973; Agnes Brantford died in 1965. They were the parents of three children:
1, Albert Henry George Commerford (1907-1994), born Wandsworth 21 May 1907, baptised 26 July 1907 Saint James, Clapham Park. He married Noreen Christine Edwards Price (1907–1981) in 1939. He died 28 April 1994 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, aged 86.
2, Michael Richard Henry Comerford (1912-1984), ‘Mickey Brantford’.
3, Agnes Violet Rebecca Comerford (1915-2008), ‘Aggie Brantford’ or Jackie Comerford, who was born in Wandsworth.
The younger son:
Michael Richard Henry Comerford (1912-1984) was an actor and film production manager who worked with the stage name of Mickey Brantford. He was born on 26 March 1912 in Brixton, London, into this theatrical family, and was baptised 5 May 1912 in Holy Trinity Church, Tulse Hill.
He began his acting career at the age of three and as a popular child actor in the silent film era in the 1920s and 1930s. He appeared in a series of Sexton Blake shorts as the detective’s assistant, Tinker. He was known for Suspense (1930), The Stolen Necklace (1933) and Strictly Illegal (1935). He died on 18 October 1984 in Buckinghamshire.
He married Irene Alma Hunter (1916–2007) on 7 August 1935, Brentford. He died 18 October 1984, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. Irene died 19 February 2007 in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.
His sister was:
Aggie Brantford, or Jackie Comerford, in ‘Second to None’ (1927)
Aggie Brantford (1915-2008), who was born on 14 January 1915 in Lambeth, London, as Agnes Violet Rebecca Comerford. As a child actor, she was known for Second to None (1927), with her brother Michael also in the cast, and Carry On! (1927). She was also known as Jackie Comerford. She married George M… in Hendon in 1947. She died on 31 October 2008 in Jedburgh, Scotland.
The Aron haKodesh or Holy Ark for the Torah scrolls in the Bevis Marks Synagogue … many of the ancestors of the Comerford (Sipple) sisters were married here in the 18th and 19th centuries (Photograph: Devor Avi/Wikipedia)
The Asher and Cohen families:
José Nunes Martines (ca 1687-1764), arrived in London sometime between 1695 and 1710, when he married Sarah de Moses Cardoza de Chavez (ca 1691-1754), daughter of Moses Nunes Cordosa and his wife Rachel de Chavez.
They were the parents of:
Abraham Joseph Nunes Martinez (1719-1781). He married in Bevis Marks Synagogue in London on 30 November 1739 Abigail (1720-1806), daughter of Abraham Isaac Rodriguez Ribeiro (1690-1751) and his wife Paloma Jacob Mizahi (ca 1700-1751).
They were the parents of:
Isaac Moses Abraham Martin Nunes Martinez (1745-1841). He was born on 6 November 1745 and died in 1841 or 1842. He married on 23 May 1764 in the Bevis Marks Synagogue, London, Abigail Aaron Mendoza (ca 1744-1810), who was born in Livornia, Tuscany, and died in London. (For her ancestry, see below). They were the parents of:
Dove Deborah (Paloma) de Isaac Nunes Martinez (1788-1876). She was born in Mile End, London, in 1788. She married her first husband, Moses Moseh Hanoch A’Cohen (1784-1832) in Bevis Marks Synagogue, London, on 16 March 1806. He was born on 25 March 1784, a son of Hanoch Eliau Hanoj Enoch A’Cohen Cohen
(1762-1827), who was born in Portugal in 1762 and died on 30 November 1827 at 329 Mile End Road, in the East End; and Shina Bonita Simha Buena Welcome Jenny Cohen (1760–1792). Moses died on 9 January 1832, aged 48.
Dove married her second husband, Abraham Ottolenghi, on 28 May 1847. The Ottolenghi (Ottolengo) Jewish Italian family in Piedmont apparently originated in Germany, and the name is an Italian form of Ettlingen. Prominent members of the family include: Joseph b Nathan Ottolenghi (died 1570), Rabbi of Cremona; Samuel David b Jehiel Ottolego (died 1718), scholar and kabbalist, born in Casale Monferrato; and Abraham Azariah (Bonaiuto) Ottolenghi (1776-1851), rabbinical scholar, born in Acqui.
Dove and Abraham were both in the Portuguese Jewish Hospital, Mile End Road, in 1861. Abraham died in 1866 and Dove died in 1876.
Dove and her first husband Moses A’Cohen were the parents of:
Sarah (Cohen) Asher (1814-1895). Sarah was born on Mile End Road in 1814, and died in 1895, aged 81. She married David Asher (1810-1866) in Birmingham in 1843. David Asher was born in London in 1810, a son of Myers Meir Meir Asher Schneider (1764-1838), born in Amsterdam (29 March 1764), died London (7 September 1838), and his wife Judith Gittela Abraham (1775-1818). David Asher worked as a confectioner and a hatter, and worked in New Street, Dudley Street and Lower Temple Street in Birmingham before moving to Christchurch, Spittalfields, in the East End. He died at Dorset Street, Whitechapel, on 15 June 1866. David Asher and Sarah (Cohen) were the parents of a number of children, including:
Elizabeth (Bessie or Betsy) Asher (1858-1935), who was born in London 1858. She performed on the stage at a very early age. Bessie married John James Sipple in 1876. Their children included two daughters who married two Comerford brothers:
● Rosina Sarah Sipple (1881-1958), who married Harry William John Comerford (1874-1955), known on stage as Harry Ford.
● Agnes Violet (Aggie) Sipple (1884-1965), who married Albert (Bert) AG Comerford.
Inside the Scuola Spagnola in Venice, founded around 1580 by Spanish and Portuguese speaking Jews … Bienvenida Abraham Tubi de Mendoza ancestors included Jewish families in Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018; click on images for full-screen resolution)
The Mendoza and Tubi families:
While the Asher family were Ashkenazi Jews, Rosina Sarah (Sipple) Comerford and her sister Agnes Violet (Sipple) Comerford were descended through their grandmother’s family from some of the most interesting Sephardi families in Spain, Venice and Livorno (Leghorn) in Tuscany. As I researched the story of this branch of the Comerford family, I was particularly moved by this detail, having visited the synagogues and ghetto in Venice last November, and followed the Jewish trails through the former Jewish quarter in Seville the month before.
The history of the Jewish community in Livorno begins with the history of the town itself. The first stone was for building the city and port of Livorno was laid in 1577. To populate the new town, the Grand Duke Ferdinando I de Medici of Tuscany issued edicts known as the Livornine in 1591-1593, providing new immigrants with tax exemptions, some immunities and complete religious freedom. Jewish, Turkish and Moorish merchants were expressly invited to move to the town. Jews could own houses, open shops in all parts of the city, study at the university and did not have to wear the Jewish badge.
Thanks to these provisions and Livorno’s central position in the Mediterranean, Jews flocked in the port and the Jewish population soon reached one eight of the entire population of the town.
Because most of these new settlers were Marranos and Levantines, Spanish became the official language of the Jewish community in Livorno. These Jews kept contacts with their places of origin, and their cultural and commercial contacts and trade networks throughout the Mediterranean lasted for centuries.
In 1765, more than one-third of the 150 largest commercial houses in Livorno were owned by Jews. For 300 years Livorno, ‘the city without a ghetto,’ was a point of reference for the Diaspora. But after Napoleonic capture, the port of Livorno declined in commercial importance and the Jewish population dwindled in numbers.
David de Mendoza (1650-1730) of Jaén was a Marrano or a member of a Jewish family that had converted publicly to Christianity at the Inquisition but continued to practice Judaism privately. Jaén is about 90 km north of Granada, 100 km east of Cordoba, and 240 km east of Seville. He married Abigail David de la Penha Castro (1665-1751), daughter of David Haim Joseph de la Penha Castro and Gracia de Ledesma. They moved from Seville to Amsterdam, where he died on 22 December 1730, and she died on 13 July 1751.
They were the parents of:
Daniel de David Mendoza (ca 1685-1758) was born in Seville. His wife Esther (1689-1774) also seems to have been born in Seville. He died in Amsterdam on 28 October 1758, and she died there on 2 May 1774.
They were the parents of:
Aaron Daniel de Mendoza (1709-1751) of Amsterdam and London. He was born in Amsterdam in 1709. He was a shochet or kosher ritual butcher. He married Bienvenida Abraham Tubi (1709-1765) in the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue in London on 22 March 1730. She was born in Livornia in 1709. Her father, Abraham Judah Tubi (1670-1739), was born in Venice and died in Livornia; his father was Judah Tubi (1629-1670). Bienvenida’s mother was Abigail Emanuel Nunes (1673-1747).
Their children included a daughter:
Abigail Aaron Mendoza (1744-1810), who was born in Livorno in 1744 and died in London in 1810. She married Isaac Moses Abraham Martin Nunes Martinez (1745-1841). They were the grandparents of Sara (A’Cohen) Asher, the grandmother of Aggie Comerford and Rosina Comerford.
Following the Caminos de Sefarad or Sephardic trail in the former Jewish Quarter in Seville … David de Mendoza’s family moved from Seville to Amsterdam, and then to London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)
Last revised and updated: 4 April 2019; 23 July 2019; 1 August 2019; 21 December 2019; 27 July 2021; 21 March 2022; 29 July 2022; 30 January 2023; 21 September 2024..
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3 comments:
What a fascinating and highly interesting piece of research - well done and thank you.
I’m the Granddaughter of Agnes and Bert Comerford. Daughter of Michael ( Micky Brantford ) Comerford.
Thank you for all this interest information.
Thank you for all the information.
Granddaughter of Aggie and Bert Comerford
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