Ada Dorée

Ada Dorée (1850 – 28 April 1916) was an English singer and actor who performed in operetta, Victorian burlesque, and pantomime from the 1870s to the 1890s. In her early life she was Ada Catherine Elizabeth Earée, and in her later years she used the name Ada Dorée-Thorne, adding that of her husband.

Life and career Dorée was born in Cockermouth, Cumberland, in 1850, as Ada Earée, the daughter of William Earée, a Church of England clergyman, and trained as a singer at the Guildhall School of Music, on a scholarship. She sang with groups known as the Philothespians and the South Kensington Amateurs before gaining professional roles in operetta, Victorian burlesque, and pantomime between the 1870s and the 1890s.

In February 1884, Dorée joined a D'Oyly Carte touring company playing the contralto role of Lady Blanche in Gilbert and Sullivan's Princess Ida. In August of that year, at Portsea, she married another member of the company, Eric Thorne; after the Banns of marriage had been published for Frederick Thomas Thorne "of this parish", and Ada Catherine Elizabeth Earée, of Alphamstone.

Dorée remained active in musical theatre. In the spring of 1888, she and Thorne both played in a touring production of The Punch Bowl, a musical comedy about a prince who believes he is invisible. In September of the same year, they both appeared in Carina at the Opera Comique in Westminster, and in 1889 both performed in Faddimar at the Vaudeville Theatre. On 2April 1911, as Ada Dorée-Thorne, she made a Census return for 4, Wharfedale Street, Earl's Court, stating herself as head of the household, living on a "small annuity". With her was her unmarried daughter Gladys Dorée-Thorne, one servant, the servant's husband, and a visitor.

Death and aftermath On 28 April 1916, Dorée died at St Saviour's Hospital, St Pancras, London, aged 66, leaving an estate valued at £1,589, with her daughter as executor.

Within a few weeks, her husband married again. In 1922, he died at a nursing home in Marylebone, leaving an estate valued for probate at £10,968 .

Their daughter Gladys remained unmarried and died at the age of 94 in Worthing, on 22 December 1979. Probate was granted in the name of Gladys Edith Hilda Earee Doree-Thorne.