also funding lighting and clothing costs, as well as giving them a weekly allowance of 30 shillings. Barnes made a number of attempts to return to the stage, most of which were unsuccessful; a final job in the summer of 1938, playing his songs in the Cricketers Inn, Westcliff-on-Sea, restored some of his confidence in his own ability. By the winter of that year he was told that he had three months to live causing the comedian to commit suicide soon after. Barnes died at his lodgings in St Ann's Road, Southend-on-Sea, on 23 October 1938. An inquest found that the cause of death was from the effects of coal gas poisoning, though the gas tap had been turned off, and suicide was ruled out. When the jury at the inquest into Barnes's death commented that Watson had been "wonderful", he replied "He was a great man". Naomi Jacob shared the view, and opined that Watson "had one of the kindest hearts in the world and was a fine artist and no mean dancer". The Era commented on Barnes's "singularly pleasing popularity". His funeral on 2 November 1938, was attended by hundreds of people at St Saviour's Church, Saltley with nearby streets crowded with mourners. Barnes was free with facts in interviews and in his own account of his life; his numerous publicity stunts which included announcements of his 'near-death' in a fire and a fake marriage. On occasion, he was known to walk around London at the height of his success with a marmoset perched on his shoulder (later, playing the pubs in Southend, he made do with a chicken). Bibliography Paul Bailey, The wavy-haired, blue-eyed adonis : Fred Barnes (1885-1938). In: Three queer lives : an alternative biography of Fred Barnes, Naomi Jacob and Arthur Marshall (London : Hamish Hamilton, 2001) p. 33-66 Anthony Barker, Music Hall magazine, issue MH30 References 1885 births 1938 suicides English male singers Music hall performers Suicides in England 20th-century English singers 20th-century British male singers Suicides by gas English gay musicians 20th-century LGBT people 19th-century LGBT people