Photofit

Well! A previously unseen photo of Irene Mawer. Sadly, this one is really difficult to look at due to the digital highlighting of her features. I have played around with the screenshot, but can’t make it look any better.

I can’t really tell if it is Irene Mawer or not, though I would say that it is. It is an extremely flattering photo and very unlike any other photo that I have seen of Irene. I think her hair is longer than I have seen before, and softer – but I would say that the eyes are definitely hers.

The photo is accompanied by twenty seven words. But what a wealth of information they give us. The paragraph reads:

Miss Irene Mawer, whose mimetic dramatisation of Chopin’s Sonata in B flat is to be produced at the Delphic Festival in the Stadium at Athens next Tuesday.”

Cor! How much more low-key can you get?

Ginner-Mawer had been awarded the great honour of being invited to perform at the Delphic Festival in Greece. This is the age when travelling to Greece would most likely have been by train and boat – a huge endeavour, especially if co-ordinating a posse of some 40 women, none of whom speak Greek.

Most mysterious of all, is why this article appeared in the newspaper at all – it seems random, but must have been very welcome, all the same.

In January and February 2025, my husband and I will be driving our campervan overland to Greece and I will endevour to follow in Irene’s footsteps.  If you have any suggestions of where I should visit in Greece – please do let me know.  So far, I am thinking of driving through Italy and taking the ferry across into Greece, then making a clockwise circular route on the mainland (not island-hopping).  We will visit Athens (of course) and Delphi and also Amfissa (which is where Irene and Ruby were given the Freedom of the Town for their fundraising during and after WW2).  Then through the Peloponnese back to the ferry to Italy.  Please let me know your thoughts, thanks.