Grand Order of Water Rats
Elvin was a Founder, in 1889, of the Grand Order of Water Rats, a show business charity which began life when a betting syndicate that had grown up around a trotting pony owned by Elvin agreed to donate any winnings to charity, gaining its name when someone referred to the pony during a rainy trip to the Derby as looking more like a water rat. Elvin served as 'King Rat' in 1894.
His interests included his extensive charitable and benevolent work and a lifelong interest in horse-racing, as owner, spectator, and keen gambler. He retired in the early 1920s and a benefit concert was held for him at the London Palladium in March 1923.
He appeared in the 1900 silent film The Rats.
Elvin is buried in Bandon Hill Cemetery in Wallington in Surrey beside his great friend and fellow music hall artiste Eugene Stratton.
Read more about this topic: Joe Elvin
Famous quotes containing the words grand, order, water and/or rats:
“There aren’t any good, brave causes left. If the big bang does come, and we all get killed off, it won’t be in aid of the old-fashioned grand design. It’ll just be for the Brave New-nothing-very-much-thank-you. About as pointless and inglorious as stepping in front of a bus. No, there’s nothing left for it, me boy, but to let yourself be butchered by the women.”
—John Osborne (1929–1994)
“I suppose that one of the psychological principles of advertising is to so hammer the name of your product into the mind of the timid buyer that when he is confronted with a brusk demand for an order he can’t think of anything else to say, whether he wants it or not.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“For months it hasn’t known the taste of steel
Washed down with rusty water in a tin.
But standing outdoors hungry, in the cold,
Except in towns at night, is not a sin.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“But suddenly it chanced to rain,
And so they all went home again.”
—Unknown. Three Young Rats (l. 7–8)