Maud Boyd

Maud Boyd as Prince Charming in Little Red Riding Hood (1893)

Maud Rachel Boyd (1 February 1867 – 23 February 1929) was an English actress and singer known for musical theatre and principal boy roles in pantomime.

Life and career

Boyd was born in 1867 at Chorlton-on-Medlock in Manchester, the daughter of James Boyd (1840–1870) and Elizabeth Montgomery née Hodgson (1834–1921). In 1881 aged 13 she was a boarder at Adelphi House Convent, a Catholic girls' school in Salford in Greater Manchester that was run by nuns. On the curriculum was music.[1]

Lawrence Rea (left), Walter Passmore, Ruth Vincent and Boyd (right) in Leedham Bantock's The Belle of Brittany (1908)

As a pantomime principal boy she played Prince Charming in Little Red Riding Hood at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin in December 1893,[2] the title role in the panto Robin Hood,[3][4] while over Christmas 1894 she was in Babes in the Wood in Liverpool.[5] Christmas 1895 found her in pantomime at the Theatre Royal in Hull[6] From December 1897 she played Alice in Dick Whittington at the Alexandra Theatre in Stoke Newington.[7] In Dublin in 1899 she recorded "The Golden Isle" from A Greek Slave for the Gramophone Company, but it was not released.[8] In Manchester in February 1900 she appeared in The Forty Thieves at the Theatre Royal.[9]

She was Sir Peterborough Court in Cinder Ellen up too Late at the Gaiety Theatre (1891),[10] Kitt in Kitty Grey at the Apollo Theatre (1901),[11][12] Lady Chaldicott in The Belle of Mayfair at the Vaudeville Theatre (1906),[13] Madame Poquelin in The Belle of Brittany at the Queen's Theatre (1908), and Friedrike in A Waltz Dream at Hicks Theatre (1908).[14]

Boyd died in a nursing home in Manchester in 1929 aged 61.[15] She was buried in the Southern Cemetery in Manchester.[16] She never married, and in her will she left £302 7s 8d to her half brother.[17]

References

  1. ^ "Maude Boyd", 1881 England Census, Lancashire, Salford, Greengate via Ancestry.com (subscription required)
  2. ^ The Sketch, 27 December 1893
  3. ^ "The Story of Pantomime", Victoria and Albert Museum, accessed 24 April 2020
  4. ^ The Sketch, 27 December 1893
  5. ^ R. J. Broadbent, Annals of the Liverpool Stage: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time , Benjamin Blom (1969), p. 291 via Google Books
  6. ^ "A Pantomime Rehearsal", University of Hull, accessed 24 April 2020
  7. ^ "The Alexandra Theatre and Opera House, Stoke Newington", Arthur Lloyd.co.uk – The Music Hall and Theatre History Site, accessed 24 April 2020
  8. ^ "Miss Maud Boyd", Sound of the Hound, accessed 24 April 2020
  9. ^ Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser , 1 February 1900, p. 1
  10. ^ Wearing, J. P., The London Stage 1890–1899: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel, Rowman & Littlefield (2014), p. 98 via Google Books
  11. ^ "The Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London", Arthur Lloyd.co.uk – The Music Hall and Theatre History Site, accessed 24 April 2020
  12. ^ Viv Gardner and Diane Atkinson (eds.) Kitty Marion: Actor and Activist, Manchester University Press (2019), p. 196 via Google Books
  13. ^ Gillan, Don. Cast of The Belle of Mayfair, Stage Beauty, accessed 24 April 2020
  14. ^ Wearing, J. P., The London Stage 1900-1909: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel, Rowman & Littlefield (2014), p. 399 via Google Books
  15. ^ Obituary for Miss Maud Boyd, The Stage, 28 February 1929, p. 15
  16. ^ "Maud Rachel Boyd", England & Scotland, Select Cemetery Registers, 1800–2016 via Ancestry.com (subscription required)
  17. ^ "Maud Boyd", England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1995, 1929 via Ancestry.com (subscription required)