A page from an autograph album, headed 'Empire, Newcastle 1954' and signed with a biro by Josef Locke (1917-1999), the Irish tenor who was a major star in the 1940s and 50s.

Born in Derry, Ireland, he was the son of a butcher and cattle dealer, and one of nine children. He started singing in local churches in the Bogside at the age of seven, and as a teenager added two years to his age in order to enlist in the Irish Guards, later serving abroad with the Palestine Police Force before returning in the late 1930s to join the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Known as The Singing Bobby, he became a local celebrity before starting to work the UK variety circuit, where he played 19 seasons in Blackpool. In 1947 Locke released "Hear my song, Violetta", which became forever associated with him. His other songs were mostly a mixture of Irish ballads such as "I'll take you home again Kathleen", "Dear old Donegal", "Galway Bay" and "The Isle of Innisfree" (the theme song from the film The Quiet Man). In 1958 after he had appeared in five Royal Variety Performances, and while he was still at the peak of his career, the British tax authorities began to make substantial demands that Locke declined to meet. Eventually he fled the country for Ireland, where he lay low for several years. When his differences with the tax people were eventually settled, Locke retired to Co. Kildare, emerging for the occasional charity concert and reappearing in Blackpool in 1968. He appeared in front of The Prince and Princess of Wales at the 1992 Royal Variety Show, singing Goodbye, having announced prior to the song that this would be his final public appearance.