I was most interested in the letter by Philip Brannon (The Argus, August 8) about the names of Elsie and Doris Waters on a Brighton and Hove bus.

Through my interest in theatre, particularly in the variety genre, I got to know Elsie and Doris well, and often visited them at their home in Steyning.

Following Elsie’s kind opening of the Dorset Gardens Methodist Church annual bazaar, I approached them to perform at the mission’s charity concert at the Brighton Dome Concert Hall with others. This was in December 1977.

They agreed but, near to the date, Doris fell ill. It was an illness from which she subsequently died. Elsie kindly arranged for their younger brother Jack Warner to take their place.

Jack was a huge success with his gift of telling stories. It was an honour for the audience and myself to meet him and his accompanist, Bobby Alderton.

I continued to call in to chat to Elsie and would sit enraptured as she talked of her days on the radio and stage, and the famous people she had met.

She was born in Bromley-by-Bow in 1896, the second of six children. All were sent to the Guildhall School of Music and received elocution lessons.

They began their career with charity concerts and their big break came when a church parson rang a firm of variety booking agents and suggested they look at the sisters.

The pair reached the height of popularity during the Second World War with sketches about food rationing, absent husbands and the like. They performed in the Underground during the Blitz. They were given OBEs in 1946.

Elsie received the Burma Star 40 years later for entertaining troops of the “Forgotten Army” and died in 1990, aged 95.

I shall never forget a very special and humble lady.

David Rutter, Holmes Avenue, Hove