2026. The HENRY RUSSELL book is on the presses. The LYDIA THOMPSON book is turning into page proofs. Wendy is back from her cruise-holiday. Paul is in the dining room revamping his website ... horses and cats are quiet .. it's time to do 'nothing'. So in between the harness racing from Nelson (where I first became addicted 70 years ago) and some mildly entertaining pre-season tennis on the TV ... I shall while away the morn with a little more disrobe-the-Cartesian fun.
So. Whom do I have here who needs a little elucidation?
Myfanwy NEWELL. Shouldn't be hard. 'of Newport, Wales'. Myfanwy Gwenllian Newell. Actually born in Hertfordshire 4 August 1888, daughter of Evan Cornelius Newell timber merchant and his wife Emily Georgina née EVE.
I see her in 1909 playing in a tour of The Dairymaids ('charming voice') before joining the Carte repertoire tour. After that stint I see but little of her, but she married William Henry BOLAND, became a mother, and died in West Clandon 19 January 1972.
That wasn't too hard. How about Olive TURNER. I think I fouled up on this one last time. She played soprano leads with the Repertory Company while Clara Dow was being Mrs William Vernour Fowlis. Here she is: Olive Mary TURNER. daughter of John Randal Turner and his wife Amy Cotton née STAPLETON.
Born in New Barnet, apparently thoroughly musically-trained, but seemingly did not make performing a priority, although in the 1939 census she was still listing herself as 'vocalist and composer'. She was also a pretty fair pianist, as I see her playing Liszt duets with her husband. In that 1939 census she also chops 10 years off her age. And the authorities queried it. They allowed her 28 November 1894. They were too kind. It was 1890. But Olive's life seems to have been a tad original. At some stage in ealy 1925 she married musician Henry Baynton Power .. or had a son by him ... he was apparently a divorcé ... She sang Lola in Cavalleria rusticana in Norwich in 1927, with him as the orchestra. Anyway she was alive when he died in the Fulham Royal Cancer Hospital 31 August 1952. She inherited £941 14s 4d, but herself died in Hendon 15 October 1953.
Here's one who does not appear in the G&S Archive. But he turns up in the company cricket team! Cyril Leonard Dodsley FLAMSTEAD (var Flamsteed). With a name like that, he was, of course, a clergyman's son. Trained at the Guildhall, sang at St Katherine's Church: he must have been a tenor for I see him in a performance of St Paul in Bristol (1899), he joined the Carte forces in 1902 and remained a chorister until 1914. His war was not happy, and at the end he put himself into St David's home in Ealing, where he died 30 December 1938. The rest of the cricket team? Messrs White, Hewett, Worrall, Frank Steward, Puesch (?!), Morris, Brittain ... I guess that's the Mr White who got into a Scottish carriage accident in July 1910 ...
Others who do not appear in the Archive include Bertha Louisa Susan RISCH (1863-1933) later Mrs Edwin Emery Phillips who can be seen latterly directing G&S in Jarrow where they tell us that she appeared 'in principal contralto roles' with the Carte co, one May HESSIAN soprano from Newport who boasts 'of the D'Oyly Carte', a Lillian TALBOT (Mrs Lillian SUCKLING) from Bolton who adverises similarly, a curious Fred LYTTON 'principal baritone of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Co' and a Madame M Forbes-Wilson who played with and directed amateurs in Whitehaven under a similar tag. As for George WINDOWS 'of the ...'. I have no idea. Nora Prendergast?
Alma [Gwenllian] GRIFFITHS (b Cardiff 13 September 1887; d Ashford 1969) tells us she started her professional career in the Carte at around 1907. She quickly moved on, and had understudied Lily Elsie in The Merry Widow, Isobel Jay in Miss Hook of Holland and played in London's Lady Tatters before she threw it in and shot off to Capetown and a wealthy marriage with one Douglas Christofferson.
Some folk who are indeed in the Archive I have been able to find additional info on. So ...
[George Richard] Hindmarsh JAMIESON (b Edinburgh 10 November 1871; d Sydney, Australia 25 July 1935) was one of those who promoted himself from chorister to 'principal' when he left England. His career in Australia was run of the mill, but 'of the D'Oyly Carte' featured in his obituary. For yes! He got one.
Another expat was the chap 'baritone of the Savoy Theatre' named Will LANSDOWNE (b 1872?) who emigrated Down Under in 1910. He sang a little, stage im Mikado in Adelaide, and after 1919, I see him not.
Of much more significance was Miss Ethel [Elizabeth] LEWIS (b 11 July 1889; de Dolphin Square, London 10 January 1982). She has definitely made the Archive! But only her professional life. Miss Lewis left the Carte to marry the teenaged [Francis] Geoffrey Pearson, third son of Viscount Cowdray in 1910. Geoffrey was killed 6 September 1914, in France, leaving her with a baby daughter. She appeared as the Hon Mrs Pearson in wartime charity events and in 1916 announced her return to the stage. In 1918 she married another wealthy man of the military, Henry John Francis Hunter. The marriage does not seem to have lasted.
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| Geoffrey Pearson |
[Mary] Louise Githens TRIMBLE (b Pennsylvania 23 October 1882) was the daughter of William H Githens, a Philadelphia cigar-broker. and 'pupil of John Dennis Mehan'. She married one Laurence Norton Trimble, who ventured as a film producer, and bore him a daughter (1912) before he walked off back to America. Louise stayed in England, worked as a vocalist, and eventually divorced him. I think I did her before. Anyway, she sang with concert parties, took her turn with the Carte, toured in La Poupée, The Pearl Girl, in revue and apparently died in England in 1969 or thereabouts.
Time to go back to work. There are still a few 'late of the D'Oyly Carte' folks on my desktop.
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