Dorothy Squires

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Dorothy Squires
Born
Edna May Squires

(1915-03-25)25 March 1915
Pontyberem, Wales
Died14 April 1998(1998-04-14) (aged 83)
Llwynypia, Wales
OccupationSinger
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1953; div. 1968)​
Musical career
Genres

Dorothy Squires (born Edna May Squires, 25 March 1915 – 14 April 1998)

If You Love Me (Really Love Me)" and "And So to Sleep Again
".

In later life, Squires filed multiple

vexatious litigant" from 1987, requiring the court's permission to file any further cases. The legal expenses ultimately led to her bankruptcy
.

Biography

Born in her parents'

tin plate factory, she began to perform professionally as a singer at the age of 16 in the working men's club of Pontyberem.[citation needed
]

Career

While working as a nurse[

East End club that gave her the name Dorothy, which she liked and adopted as her stage name. Squires did most of her work with the orchestra of Billy Reid, who was her partner for many years.[2] After she joined his orchestra in 1936, he began to write songs for her to perform.[citation needed
]

Billy Reid

After

Best Sellers in Stores
chart.

Her version of another Reid-penned song, "

hit single in the US, and her recording of "The Gypsy" also became a No. 1 hit there after being recorded by the Ink Spots – their biggest hit. It was also a major hit for Dinah Shore.[citation needed
]

While working with Billy Reid, Squires lived in Brixton.[citation needed]

Roger Moore

Squires met the actor

Old Bexley, Kent. Moore, who was 12 years her junior, later became her husband when they married in New Jersey on 6 July 1953. She later said, "it started with a squabble, then he carried me off to bed."[citation needed] She introduced him to various people in the Hollywood film industry. As his career took off, hers started to slide. Their marriage lasted until 1961, when Moore left her. He was unable to marry legally until Squires agreed to a divorce in 1968 – the day on which Squires was convicted of drunk driving.[3][4]

Returning to the UK, Squires had a career revival in the late 1960s at the age of 55 with a set of three singles that made the

UK Singles Chart, including a cover of "My Way". New albums and concerts followed including concerts at the London Palladium, Royal Albert Hall and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. She issued a double album of her Palladium concert.[citation needed
]

Later life

In 1971, she filed the first of 30 court cases over the next 15 years. In 1971, she successfully sued the

Michael Havers acted for Kenneth More, who won the case.[5] In 1973, she was charged with high kicking a taxi driver who tried to throw her out of his cab. She was also one of several artists charged with bribing a BBC radio producer as part of a scheme to make him play her records; the case was dropped.[6][7]

In 1974, her Bexley mansion burned down, from which she escaped with her dog and all her love letters from Roger Moore. She then moved into a house in Bray next to the River Thames, which flooded three weeks later.[citation needed]

By 1982, she had been banned from the High Court, having spent much of her fortune on legal fees. Her numerous lawsuits caused the High Court on 5 March 1987 to declare her a "vexatious litigant", preventing her from commencing any further legal actions without the permission of the Court.[8] In 1988, following bankruptcy proceedings, she lost her home in Bray, to which she returned the following night to recover her love letters from Moore. Her last concert was in 1990, to pay her Community Charge.[citation needed]

Squires was provided with a home in Trebanog, Rhondda, South Wales, by a fan, Esme Coles.[citation needed] Squires retired there becoming a recluse, and died in 1998 of lung cancer, aged 83, at Llwynypia Hospital, Rhondda. Her remains are interred in a family plot in Streatham Park Cemetery, south London.[3]

Legacy

On 20 May 2013, a commemorative

Al Pillay in the title role, premiered at the White Bear Theatre in London on 6 June 2012, with a subsequent engagement at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August that year.[11] Welsh singer-songwriter Christopher Rees
wrote a tribute song to Dorothy Squires, 'Alright Squires', which appeared on his 2013 album Stand Fast.

Hit singles

Filmography

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 1-85227-937-0
    .
  2. ISBN 978-0-7864-0748-4
    .
  3. ^ a b "BBC, April 14, 1998, Obituaries, Dorothy Squires dies at 83". Archived from the original on 3 December 2002. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  4. ^ Davies, Hugh (10 October 2000). "Roger Moore pays wife £10m in divorce deal". Telegraph. Archived from the original on 27 October 2009. Retrieved 2 October 2010. When the actor Kenneth More introduced the couple at a charity event as "Mr Roger Moore and his wife", she sued him too, for libel.
  5. ISBN 978-0-340-22603-2
    . I received a letter from a firm of solicitors claiming that I had slandered their client, Miss Dorothy Squires, who was in fact Mrs. Roger Moore, in that I had called another woman his wife. At that time Louisa was not married to Roger, although she had borne him two children. I knew that he had been married to Dorothy Squires, but so far as the world was concerned, he was living with Luisa as his wife. I wrote a letter of apology, but the solicitors replied that this was not sufficient. Dorothy Squires was going to sue me in the High Court. I therefore consulted my old friend, Michael Havers (the future Attorney General). .... The jury took thirty minutes to decide what I had said was not defamatory ...
  6. ^ "Record-Plugging Scandals Hit British Broadcasting". Nashua Telegraph. 18 May 1973. p. 5. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  7. ^ "Payola Scandal Hits British Broadcasting". St Petersburg Independent. 18 May 1973. p. 20A. Retrieved 2 October 2010.[permanent dead link]
  8. Her Majesty's Courts Service. Archived
    from the original on 10 December 2015. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  9. ^ "Sir Roger pays for Dorothy Squires' plaque". Llanellistar.co.uk. Archived from the original on 6 December 2013. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  10. ^ "Sherman Cymru – Say It With Flowers". ShermanCymru.co.uk/. Archived from the original on 25 May 2013. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  11. ^ "BWW Reviews: Dorothy Squires Mrs Roger Moore, White Bear Theatre, June 7, 2012". WestEnd.BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  12. ISBN 1-904994-10-5
    .

External links
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