Noel Coward was born in Teddington on 16th December, 1899. Coward began acting at the age of 12 and appeared in Peter Pan in 1913. His first play was produced in 1917. However, it was the play, I'll Leave It to You (1920) that first brought him national recognition. This was followed by The Vortex (1924), Hay Fever (1925) and This Year of Grace (1928).
Coward was also a singer who wrote his own music. His operetta Bitter Sweet, was produced in 1929. Other popular plays and musicals included Private Lives (1930), Cavalcade (1931) and Words and Music (1932), which featured his most famous song, Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Coward also published an autobiography, Present Indicative in 1937.
Other popular songs by Coward include Poor Little Rich Girl, A Room With a View, Dance Little Lady, Someday I'll Find You, Alexander's Ragtime Band, Mrs Worthington, Mad About the Boy, London Pride and Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans, a song that was banned by the BBC for being pro-German.
During the Second World War Coward began to write film scripts. This included In Which We Serve (1942), Blithe Spirit (1945) and Brief Encounter (1945).
After the war Coward published a second volume of autobiography, Future Indefinite (1954) and wrote several plays and musicals There Are Bad Times Just Around the Corner (1952), Nude With Violin (1956) and Sail Away (1961).
Noel Coward died in Port Maria, Jamaica, on 26th March, 1973.
Primary Sources
(1) Noel Coward, Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans (1943)
Verse
We must be kind
And with an open mind
We must endeavour to find
A way -
To let the Germans know that when the war is over
They are not the ones who'll have to pay.
We must be sweet
And tactful and discreet
And when they've suffered defeat
We mustn't let
Them feel upset
Or ever get
The feeling that we're cross with them or hate them,
Our future policy must be to reinstate them.
Refrain 1
Don't let's be beastly to the Germans
When our victory is ultimately won,
It was just those nasty Nazis who persuaded them to fight
And their Beethoven and Bach are really far worse than their bite
Let's be meek to them-
And turn the other cheek to them
And try to bring out their latent sense of fun.
Let's give them full air parity
And treat the rats with charity,
But don't let's be beastly to the Hun.
Verse 2
We must be just
And win their love and trust
And in addition we must
Be wise
And ask the conquered lands to join our hands to aid them.
That would be a wonderful surprise.
For many years-
They've been in floods of tears
Because the poor little dears
Have been so wronged and only longed
To cheat the world,
Deplete the world
And beat
The world to blazes.
This is the moment when we ought to sing their praises.
Refrain 2
Don't let's be beastly to the Germans
When we've definately got them on the run
Let us treat them very kindly as we would a valued friend
We might send them out some Bishops as a form of lease and lend,
Let's be sweet to them
And day by day repeat to them
That 'sterilization' simply isn't done.
Let's help the dirty swine again
To occupy the Rhine again,
But don't let's be beastly to the Hun.
Refrain 3
Don't let's be beastly to the Germans
When the age of peace and plenty has begun.
We must send them steel and oil and coal and everything they need
For their peaceable intentions can be always guaranteed.
Let's employ with them a sort of 'strength through joy' with them,
They're better than us at honest manly fun.
Let's let them feel they're swell again and bomb us all to hell again,
But don't let's be beastly to the Hun.
Refrain 4
Don't let's be beastly to the Germans
For you can't deprive a gangster of his gun
Though they've been a little naughty to the Czechs and Poles and Dutch
But I don't suppose those countries really minded very much
Let's be free with them and share the B.B.C. with them.
We mustn't prevent them basking in the sun.
Let's soften their defeat again - and build their bloody fleet again,
