TIFFIE COOKE (1893-1964)

‘Tiffie’ Cooke was a prominent and popular musician, dancer and dance teacher in East Fremantle in the 1920’s and 1930’s.

She was born Marie Mignot in Redfern, New South Wales, 1893, to parents Elsie and George Mignot (a hairdresser in Cairns). Her parents marriage did not last, and her mother moved to Perth where she married  William J Price in 1906. William appears to have died in 1911. Five years later, Elsie married John Cooke of East Fremantle, who became Tiffie’s stepfather. At this time Tiffie would have been about 18.

Tiffie’s first public performance seems to be a cornet solo at a 1917 concert in aid of the Perth Children’s Hospital. (Reference) The concert was performed by “Miss Esler’s Junior Pierrots’ which then went on an extended tour of South-West of WA. The ‘Pierrots’ performed at Bunbury, Katanning, Kalgoorlie and Boulder during April and May of 1917. Tiffie is favourably mentioned in local newspaper reports for her cornet-playing and her dancing. (Reference) (Reference)

She continued to perform as a cornet-player and dancer until 1921 when she went to train at the Melbourne Royal Academy of Dancing for nine months under prominent dance teacher, Jenny Brenan. (Reference)  

‘‘The many friends of Miss Tiffie Cooke, of Forrest-street, Fremantle will be pleased to hear that she will be returning by the Katoomba this week. Miss Cooke, who has been in the Eastern States for the past nine months studying with Miss J. Brennan (sic), the dancing mistress, will in all probability start a dancing class in the Port in the near future.”' (reference)

After returning to Perth, she performed as a dancer for the Hamilton and Maxwell Revue and Vaudeville Company in January 1922 (Reference) In February Tiffie opened her first dance school in the Victoria Hall in Fremantle, teaching ‘up-to-date’ dancing. She also offered private dancing lessons at 155 Forrest Road in East Fremantle (Reference) By early 1923 her first dance group presented its inaugural concert in Fremantle, followed by a major one at the end of the year (Reference)

Concerts by Tiffie’s dancing girls were then given virtually twice a year until 1941. Newspaper reports on these events give us an idea of the nature of the various performers and numbers. Often the earnest performance of the very youngest dancers ‘the babies’ was the highlight. (Reference) 

Tiffie’s Dance Group performances also featured the singing and dancing talents of her good friend Miss Doris Deary (1900-1983). Doris had also gone to Melbourne, for singing training, in 1921, and she and Tiffie performed together for the Hamilton and Maxwell Revue and Vaudeville Company in 1922. In November 1927 Doris and Tiffie performed at the annual social night for the Coastal Motor Cycle Club at the East Fremantle Town Hall. By 1928 Tiffie and Doris were well known in Perth and Fremantle performing arts circles.

Tiffies’ brother Earle and their mother, Elsie, were also involved in the concert performances. (Reference) By this time Tiffie and Doris Deary were close friends. Doris accompanied the Cooke family on a holiday to Kalamunda in 1931, and Tiffie and Doris went on holiday together to Chidlow’s Well (about 45 km outside of Perth) in 1932.(Reference) (Reference)

Tiffie’s stepfather, John Cooke, died In late 1939. His funeral was attended by many prominent Fremantle personalities, along with representatives of Fremantle Municipal Tramways (including W C Angwin) where John had worked. He left a widow. one step daughter and two stepsons.. The chief mourners were Mrs. E. V. Cooke (widow), Miss T. Cooke (stepdaughter), Mr. E.J. Mignot-Cooke (stepson). Mrs. E. J. Mignot-Cooke (daughter-in-law), Dawn and John Mignot-Cooke (grandchildren). (Reference) Doris Dearie was also present.

After John’s death Tiffie began teaching her classes at the Masonic Hall, East Fremantle (now 217 Canning Highway). Her students began rehearsing for Foy’s Christmas Pantomime there early in 1940 (Reference) By this time her niece, Dawn Mignot, was part of Tiffie’s dance school and began to be mentioned in news reports, notably for her ‘oriental costume’ in 1941 (Reference)

Tiffie appears to have stopped dance teaching from 1941 as there are no more references to this in the local press. Notable events in her life were related to her remaining family. Dawn got engaged in 1947, and her sister-in-law, Mabel, made the news for a trip to Newcastle, NSW. 

In 1951, her mother, Elsie, died (Reference) and in 1953 her nephew, John Louie, son of Earl and Mabel, died in a motorcycle accident (Reference) 

Tiffie (known as Marie-Emily Ecariste Cooke) eventually got married in 1955 at the age of 62, to Frederick Seales (1874-1962) who was then 81. Fred was a letterpress printer from Victoria, and had been married for 54 years to Anna Atlanta Uktavia Hanson (1873-1954) . After Anna died in 1954 Frederick must have moved to Western Australia where he married Tiffie around a year later. In Frederick’s family tree and genealogy, managed by his grandson Warren Embury, his marriage to Tiffie is not mentioned at all (Reference)

My grand father was very much the Victorian gentleman, quietly spoken, he was born into a family of letterpress printers, his family started and ran newspapers in central Victoria, Birragurra, Pyramid Hill and Inglewood, he had a business at Hamilton and sold out in 1907 went to West Australia to help his brother in law where they started printing a news paper at Marble Bar staying for 7 ys. Then he started in Flinders lane Melbourne a print shop called Seale Press, his son in law John Davey also worked there, this firm was still operating in 1972… In 2010 I met a chap in Melbourne who actually worked for my grandfather, saying he had to sign a paper stating he did not drink smoke or gamble before starting employment, he said they printed swing tickets and general stationary etc, for the swanky shops of Melbourne, Warren Embury 2012

The two were married for seven years until Fred died in 1962, aged 88. Tiffie died two years later in 1964, aged 71. Both are buried at Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth. Tiffie was buried as Marie-Emily Seales.

Doris Deary died in 1983 in Mt Lawley aged 83 (Reference)

Researched and written by Mark Jardine for www.streetsofeastfreo

After this time there are no available references to Tiffie’s ensuing activities and experiences. At present the Museum of Perth is attempting to track down her surviving relatives to find further information on this.