Sold Date: February 28, 2024
Start Date: March 6, 2022
Final Price: £15.00 (GBP)
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This 12" 78rpm Columbia-Rena shellac record (number 271) was probably produced in 1911 and features the English tenor Morgan Kingston, born Alfred Webster Kingston in 1875 in Staffordshire, died 1936 in Stoke Pages, Buckinghamshire.  Visually the record is in almost excellent condition with one or two light scuff marks.
As Alfred Kingston he married in 1895 and moved to Mansfield. Although he was working as a miner he was in demand as a solo singer at many local functions. Encouraged by his colleagues at Mansfield colliery he had lessons in London for speech and singing, whilst still working down the pit.  He sang Nirvana at a fund raising social event in 1908. In 1909 he made his debut as Morgan Kingston at the Queens Hall in London. In 1912 he was engaged by Campini and Dippel to sing with the Chicago Philharmonic Opera and then the Century Opera Company.  In 1913 he sang at The White House for President and Mrs Woodrow Wilson; he was presented with a model of a Welsh harp with an American eagle at its base in solid gold.  
In 1924 he returned to England to appear at Covent Garden.  He sang his last concert in 1928 in Liverpool. With failing health he moved to Stoke Pages where he died in 1936.
He made many records for the Columbia record company between 1911 and 1918,  but I can find no details of this Columbia-Rena record.  From the serial number, 271, I assume it was produced in 1911.  (He recorded “Nirvana” in 1911 on Columbia 6144).