Over the past couple of decades, when it has been my hobby to delve into the 'who was' and the 'what did they do?' of nineteenth-century singers, I've succeeded in dragging forth the facts on a goodly number of the species from behind seemingly impenetrable pseudonyms and stage names.
This week, by dint of dogged perseverance, I scored a really nice gotcha!
Madame Eugenia Morgan appears on the scene in 1889. She becomes a pupil at the Guildhall School of Music and for more than a decade thereafter is utterly ubiquitous in the concert rooms of the London suburbs and the Home Counties, on piers and in Mechanics' Institutes, Town Halls ... anywhere a concert could be staged , Madame Morgan was there. But .. who was she? Whence did she come? Why was she Madame from day one at school? Who was Morgan? Well, it soon became clear to me that something was not 'normal' and time and time again, after having had her cross the paths and careers of more transparent folks, I put Eugenia aside. But only 'aside'. And in April 2026 she revealed all to me ... well, nearly all. But enough!
So. She was indeed a married woman, and mother of a son, when she enrolled at the Guildhall. Why Madame rather than Mrs I know not, but such was an affectation of the age. And why I had missed her, time and again, was that she was a rather mature student. Thirty-four years of age!
The story, mined from the past, goes like this. Eugenia Morgan Puddicombe (yes!) was born at Silverton, Tiverton, Devon 10 December 1855. Father Edward Morgan Puddicombe MD, medical officer for Bickley and Silverton, mother the former Isabella Zefinia (sic) Cresswell, daughter of the vicar of Creech St Michael.
She seems to have lived a plain and comfy life -- although three of her four siblings died in the 1860s -- until 1880, when her mother died, and the following year (13 July 1881) Eugenia married Mr Walter Baker, 'youngest son of Dr Baker of Portman Square' and, en suite, gave birth to a son, Harold Edward. Mr Baker was an electrical engineer and would remain so all his life, but he was also an amateur vocalist ... which I guess is how they met.
The déclic came in 1887. Father, too, died. And Eugenia decided to have a crack at being a professional singer. She enrolled at the Guildhall. She quickly climbed the ranks and became the school's top soprano. In 1890 her rendition of 'I will extol thee' won her the first prize for singing. But she was already collecting honoraria and song credits ...
'La Zingara' (Bucalossi), 'Lusitania (Edward St Quentin), 'By the Fountain' (Stephen Adams), 'Winds in the Trees' (Goring Thomas), 'The Flight of Ages' (Frederick Bevan), 'Home, Dearie, Home', 'The Carnival' and 'Voices' (Molloy), The Sleeping Tide' and 'She is thinking of you'(Kellie), 'La Serenata' (Tosti), 'Come to Me' (Denza), 'Winter' (Scott Gatty), 'The Castilian Maid (Lehmann), 'Thou Art My Life' (Mazzoni), 'The Mission of a Rose' and 'The Swallows' (Cowen), 'The Vales of Arklow' (Leslie Stuart), 'Sognai' (Schira) e tutti quanti were leavened, in concert, by a touch of opera or light opera. And, before long, the kind of 'selections' formerly featured in music halls. Eugenia sang hundreds of Arlines, hundreds of Maritanas: well, the music of them. Although she played both roles at the Guildhall or in one of the many concerts given with old Guildhall colleagues. Madame M would never feature in a regular Opera company, even though one or two mendacious ads claimed that she was 'late of the Carl Rosa' or 'of the Crystal Palace Grand Opera' etc. Her dramatic essays were limited to concert performances ('a voice of fair power and extensive range') of such as The Rose of the Auvergne, The Sleeping Queen, Quid pro quo et al. And then came the English Opera Singers, and Mr Burgon.
https://kurtofgerolstein.blogspot.com/2025/07/harry-burgon-bass-who-was-boss.html
These groups were concert parties, both featured 'songs from the shows' from grand opera to a goodly dose of Gilbert and Sullivan, and, from 1892, Madame M succeeded to the soprano spot in both groups, turn by turn, for many years. The second half of the concert became a 'grand selection' from a favourite opera, and if The Bohemian Girl and Maritana were the most given, Eugenia got to sing her favourite 'Jewel Song' when Faust was given and the role of Santuzza when Cavalleria rusticana became a regular on Burgon's programmes. Ivanhoe, Il Trovatore, I Pagliacci, La Fille du régiment also took a less frequent turn. She got a little variety when the Burgon troupe were employed by provincial groups to guest as the soloists in their choral performances (The Bride of Dunkerron at Bradford, The Golden Legend at Aberdeen, Judas Maccabaeus at Penrith, Engedi at Chelmsford).
After Burgon's death, his wife for a short while carried on the group, but by the earliest years of the twentieth century, it was over. In the 1901 census, Walter and Eugenia can be seen at 69 Elgin Avenue, Maida Vale. Walter is still engineering, Eugenia is taking in paying guests.
Eugenia died at 109 Elgin Avenue 21 November 1916. Walter outlived her -- he can be seen in the 1921 census '67 years and one month old' -- but what became of him I know not.
Anyway, there's 'Madame Morgan' a mystery no longer!
And her fellow workers? Less problematic... for the most part.
Jessie BROWNING [BROWN, Jessie] (b Southwark x 16 August 1886, d Buenos Aires) (Mrs Joseph Constance Jones)
Adeline VAUDREY [née MOULD, Adeline] (b Southampton 1863 x 19 December 1864; d Upper Phillimore Place, Kensington 2 August 1926) (Mrs John Rorie Friend)
Ann[ie] LAYTON (b Knaphill 1859) (Mrs Percy Frederick [Keitley-] Webb)
Emily [Jane] RASEY (b St John's Wood 4 February 1873; d Barnet, 4 September 1969)
[Walter] Cecil BARNARD (b Canonbury 10 August 1866; d Savage Club, London 30 November 1897)
Charles [Edwin] ELLISON (b Knutsford 8 July 1854; d Lewisham High St, New Cross 16 March 1913)
[Thomas] Wills-PAGE [PAGE, Thomas William] b Soho 1863
Broughton BLACK [BLACK, Harry Virgilius] (b Manchester x 15 July 1860; d Black Rock House, Rottingdean 8 April 1926)
Hilton ST JUST [TODD, George William] (b Bradford, Yorks x Rawdon 27 March 1862; d Nag’s Head, Sutton-on-Trent, Notts 16 September 1940)
Antonio Alfred MEDCALF (b Felixstowe 9 August 1866; d Albert Rd, Woodford March 1921)
Kelson TRUMAN [TRUEMAN, Alfred William] (b Melksham 12 March 1862; b Tonbridge 17 October 1925)
John [Frederick] PROBERT (b Clerkenwell 1856; d Golder's Green Rd, Hendon 12 December 1926)
'Wilfrid CUNLIFFE' (b Hartlepool c 1858; d Weymouth ?1932)
[Thomas] Henry BEAUMONT (b Robin Hood Hill, Berry Brow, Huddersfield 17 January 1858; d 11 Warwick Avenue, London 19 August 1919).
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