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Millicent Phillips Redditch Heritage
Millicent Phillips, Soprano
Millicent Phillips was born in Easemore Road, Redditch in 1924. She started singing at a
very early age and had first performed at the Palace Theatre at the age of five. At the
age of ten her mother took her to see the well-known coloratura soprano, Mavis Bennet,
who started to teach Millicent.
In 1935, at the age of ten Millicent was one of the outstanding features of the Cheltenham
Festival and won the under twelve vocal solo class. She also entered by mistake the
twelve to fifteen class and though she had been given the highest marks she was
disqualified because of her age. Then later in the week, though the youngest competitor,
she had won the under seventeen’s competition and won by 92 points, eight more points
than the girl who was second.
She won many awards and performed at many different venues over the next few years.
Classed in several newspapers as a child genius or prodigy she also became a
broadcasting and gramophone record star. At the age of fourteen some compared her to
Deanna Durbin who was a Canadian born American actress and singer, of a similar age.
In 1944 Millicent was Redditch carnival queen.
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