Edmund Hockridge

Baritone singer Edmund Hockridge was at his height in the mid-'50s, at a time when big ballad singers ruled the charts just before rock & roll came along.

Born in Vancouver on the 9th August 1919, he studied the piano and was heard by John Charles Thomas the New York Metropolitan Opera star who heard him singing in church while in London during World War II.

Back in Canada, he won a Forces club amateur talent contest in 1941 which led to engagements on the radio shows Maple Leaf Matinee and Johnny Canuck's Revue.