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Mrs. Florence Genevieve Middleton née St.John — |
Florence Genevieve St.John
Prefix:
Mrs.
First Name:
Florence
Middle Names:
Genevieve
Last Name:
Middleton
Father: Vane Ireton St.John
Mother: Eliza Catherine Middleton
Died: ?
Profession: lyricist
Florence Genevieve St.John has no children listed here.
- Married once Charles Sharp Middleton II at: Queensland, Australia on 07 May 1888
- Married Edmund Hudson at: Lambeth Register Office, England on 07 Nov 1913
Marriage Announcement
Source
From the Queenslander, 26th May 1888
MIDDLETON—ST.JOHN.—On the 17th May, at the Registrar-General's Office, Brisbane, Charles Sharp Middleton, third son of Charles Sharp Middleton, author, of London, and Amy Ann, daughter of Francis Haynes II, to Florence Genevieve St.John, youngest daughter of Vane Ireton Shaftsbury St.John, author, of London, and Eliza Catherine, youngest daughter of Safory and Barbara Middleton and niece of Sir Spenser St.Johm K.C.M.G., the author, and granddaughter of James Augustus St.John. [Home papers please copy.]
Genealogy
Source
- Florence Genevieve,b. Pancras 1864, chr. St Martins, married (i)Charles S. Middleton, May 7 1888, Queensland, (ii) Edmund Hudson, a lamplighter, Dec Q., 1813, Lambeth.
- In 1901, Flo was living with Arnold, London Rd, Croydon,
Violet, Ethel and Florence left London, Sep 5, 1883 on the ship “Friedenburg”, arriving in Moreton Bay, Jan 20.1884, travelling steerage. Ethel died of Typhoid, Mar 9, 1885, in Brisbane Hospital, and was buried at Toolong Cemetery, Mar 21, Queensland.
See [1]Biography
SourceBeing totally incorrigible, Middleton’s artistic soul had again become gross in the early years of the twentieth century - in England.
One of the first of his songs to appear was called 'Right in the Heart of June. It was bought by W.M Paxton in 1905 and was one of the many thousands of song sheets that littered the lower end of ‘Tin Pan Alley’ and overflowed onto countless piano-stools. With its simple waltz melody the song was typical of the popular music of the period.
The lyrics were by Florence Genevieve St John She had been another cousin of Middleton - and an earlier girlfriend.
'Beau - tIt-ti --ful Beau-ti-ful June' coos Florence while the composer chirrups ‘Cuckoo! Cuckoo! on a few felicitous piano chords up to a high B flat. 'Darling my heart is thine'~ Dearer than all to me’ she croons as the composer retorts with the gleeful trill of an ecstatic nightingale. Middleton's achievements sometimes fell short of his expectations. In 'A Vagabond's Odyssey’ he recalls walking along a New Zealand bush-track on his way to apply for a position as violin dance-player "I had been reading my Byron and Keat's 'Ode to a Nightingale'," he remembers,"To which I had written music notwithstanding that the ode was music itself: He adds apologetically "For when we are young we rush forward to paint the cheeks of the Gods and teach wise old bush fallers philosophy.’
‘Beau-ti-ful Beau-ti-ful June The nightingale you’ll hear Singing its plaint-tif tune
Poor Florence! She had been fond of her vagabond cousin - and his brothers, for she had lived with two of them consequently before setting up with him. First the elder brother, Horace; then she married Charles - whom she discarded for Arnold.
(from 'A Footnote to Stevenson chapter two')