IF you should chance upon the Arts Centre’s stage manager wearing something distinctive on his lapel, don’t make the mistake of asking him about his badge.
The insignia of the Grand Order of Water Rats is an emblem, not a badge, Steven Laffoley-Edwards insists emphatically.
“You can get into trouble for calling it that,” he said.
Whatever it is called, it testifies to the honour the long-serving stage manager has just received, having been elected to the exclusive ranks of the Water Rats, the entertainment industry’s charitable and fraternal organisation established in 1889.
Under its rules, there can only be 200 members at any time and Mr Laffoley-Edwards – the 936th in its history – joins current luminaries including Michael Crawford, Frank Bruno and Al Murray, to say nothing of past members who have included such legendary figures as Bruce Forsyth, Tommy Cooper and Oliver Hardy.
“It is a great honour. It’s a limited club and you have to be invited to join,” he said, adding that his association with the Water Rats goes back to 1989, when he first helped with their annual fundraising ball at the Grosvenor Hotel.
He continued: “My first job was sitting with an 80-carousel slide projector, projecting images and every 30 seconds pressing the button on it because there was no remote then – that was my job for four hours. Ever since then I’ve done many jobs for the Water Rats, including the ball every year apart from when they left the Grosvenor for two years and for Covid. I’ve done 30 balls for them in all.”
It was helping at the ball that was to bring Mr Laffoley-Edwards into contact with a former Opera House owner, the late Dick Ray, who offered him the job that first brought him to Jersey. Like fellow Island resident Billy Butlin, Mr Ray was another distinguished member of the Grand Order.
But in spite of Mr Laffoley-Edwards’s long association with the Grand Order, news of his recognition came entirely out of the blue.
“I got a phone call from the administrator saying your name has been put forward and would I like to be considered. You have to be proposed by two Rats and then there’s quite a lengthy process where you go to council, who obviously have to know who you are before asking the membership, at which point it goes out to vote. There have been stage managers before, but it’s mainly stars, so to be invited into the circle is a great honour. All the way through until I was invested last week, you don’t quite think it’s going to happen. It’s something you don’t ask for,” he said.
Mr Laffoley-Edwards said the name of the organisation came about when, during the days of the music hall, two professionals met and decided to bet on a trotting pony at the races. While driving it home one day in the rain, its owner was hailed by a bus driver who called out: “Blimey, it looks more like a bleedin’ water rat.”
Later, when a group of successful backers met for dinner to celebrate the pony’s success, they decided to form a fellowship.
An element of mystique still surrounds the Grand Order, and Mr Laffoley-Edwards is coy about the event at which he was officially admitted. It was “uplifting” and he was welcomed with some camaraderie – he would not say much more, although he added: “It’s really quite special, rather than just getting a letter.”
Commenting on the insignia, Mr Laffoley-Edwards said: “If you lose it, or if you don’t wear it at an event, you get fined. It can get very expensive.”
