Alfred Hollis Randell (1919-2006)
Alfred was a second cousin to Mary's mother, Ruth.
We are indebted to the work of the Stroud Local History Society and especially their secretary, Marion Hearfield, who transcribed a Randell family diary manuscript into electronic form. The type written manuscript is entitled "A Cotswold Diary - a transcription of the diary of Alfred Luke Randell, of Lansdown, Stroud, in the County of Gloucestershire, master cabinetmaker, linguist and European traveller, 1869-1876, by his grandson, Alfred Hollis Randell."
As a footnote to the electronic version of the diary Marion, in April 2015, has written the following:
"The writer [Alfred Hollis Randell], was educated in Switzerland and, due to being a chronic asthmatic since birth, returned to England in 1938, where he taught languages and music, joined the famous Felix Mendelssohn’s Hawaiian Serenaders in 1940, on their films, recordings, television, stage, and broadcast engagements, and as featured steel guitarist, guitarist, vocalist, and ukuleleist with the band, played at the Ritz, Stroud, under his professional name of “Kealoha Life” (derived from his mother’s maiden name “Life”) on the 19. 7. 1942, when he had the pleasure of re-visiting the home of his antecedents. After visiting French-Canada, Nova Scotia, and the USA he spent twenty years in South Africa, South-West Africa (now Namibia), and Portuguese East Africa (now the Republic of Mozambique) as orchestra-leader and radio and recording musician, travelling 45,000 miles through Southern Africa by train and car to fulfil engagements, with four return trips to England via the Canaries, Madeira, and St Helena, terminating his ‘tour’ in the Kruger National Park Game Reserve, which he opines, was the most terrifying experience of his life! His son, Jeffrey Lani Randell, born in Capetown, is a Mormon Elder (thus diverging from his family’s life-long association with Wesleyan Methodism) whose hobby is singing, and lives, with his family near his father, who is 67, and has retired in Hampshire."
It may well be, although we cannot confirm it, that the gentleman adorning the record cover above is "Keoloha Life" aka Alfred Hollis Randell! There are a number of recordings both audio and video on YouTube; this one mentions Keoloha Life by name -
felix mendelssohn hawaiian serenaders
Ruth, Mary's mother, was an only child with no first cousins, so invested much time and effort into creating her family tree, but without the benefit of the Internet. The sad irony is that Alfred Hollis died in 2006 in Cardiff, so may well have been living there at the same time as Ruth.