Yvonne Jouault
I never knew my Aunt Yvonne and knew next to nothing about her, but over the years I have come across bits of information. She was born in 1910 at Villa-Villetri in Vallée des Vaux, St Helier. Her parents were Jean Louis Jouault and Marguerite Marie Le Dain. I know nothing about her early days other than she is mentioned with my father in the visitors book that was kept when my grandmother ran a sort of guesthouse.
I was told there was always lots of home entertainment there, which maybe is where my aunt gained an interest in the theatre. The next mention of her was when she returned to the island in February 1932 with a Reg Newson as part of the “Le Dain Players” that performed some plays at Springfield, attracting good audiences and receiving good local reviews. The Evening Post published write-ups and the only picture of my aunt that I have.
It would appear that she was progressing well in her career and in 1936 she appeared in a musical “The Silver Swan” at the Palace Theatre, London. She always appeared under her stage name Yvonne Le Dain.
Marriage
Shortly after she had finished the musical she married a London musican, John Farrant Smith (1903-1989). From what I can gather Yvonne chose to put her career on hold and her husband took up a post as music teacher at Rugby School.
This where my research into her started and I placed an request for information in the Rugby newspapers. I received a number of replies with details and memories of Yvonne, who was a popular and energetic figure in the town. One lady sent me a collection of programmes she had kept of plays that Yvonne and her husband had produced during the war years. They were very popular, partly due to the lack of entertainment at the time. One of these, “Dangerous Corner”, directed by Yvonne, with music by her husband, included a young Bryan Forbes.
When I received the programmes I got in touch with Mr Forbes and he kindly responded to my letter and phone call, but was unable to give me any further information.
I am not sure when, but Yvonne seperated from her husband and went to live in London and became an agent for young actors. She appeared to do well for herself, although she had some bad tenants in her attached flat and she eventually moved to Trebetherick, Cornwall, which is on the east side of the Camel estuary. She died in 1979. <gallery widths="300px" heights="200px" perrow="3" align=center style= "color: darkgreen;font-family:garamond;font-size:12pt;font-weight: normal;text-align:center;font-style: italic;letter-spacing: 1px; cellspacing= 30px;padding: 20px 20px 30px 20px;"> File:JouaultProgramme.jpg FIle:JouaultCastList.jpg
