Anny Ahlers

At Shipley were laid the ashes of Anny Ahlers, the German actress who came as a stranger to England and in less than a year had died and become part of the story of a little English village.

She could hardly speak our language when she came to London in 1932 to play the lead in The 'Dubarry'. A 26-year-old German girl, whose vitality seemed to glow like her shining red hair, she won London in a night, and for months attracted crowds to her theatre.

She sang like a nightingale and her smile was enchantment. People not only admired her art, but loved her for her generous nature and fine spirit. She worked hard, used up all her energy, and would come down to Shipley to rest, staying with her friends at the house called Floodgates. Twice she came, and Shipley sent her back to London with a fresh vitality. She had arranged a third visit, but the very day before she was due to arrive, ill and weak, she fell out of the window of her flat and was killed.

Her mother came over from Germany to take back some of her ashes to her own country, and for the rest her friends the Burrells, opened their family vault at Shipley. Her name is linked with the village not only by the tablet on the wall, but by the adding of an anonymous small sum "in memory of Anny Ahlers" to the income of this little church.

Hers is a tragic story, the young German who in a few months found success, friends, and then death in our friendly country; but we feel that she who loved to rest here will be happy if she knows of her last resting-place.

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