George Stansbury

George Frederick Stansbury (7 June 1800 – 3 June 1845) was a British composer, musical director and arranger and an operatic singer. Although contemporary reviewers described his voice as of "poor quality", he was nevertheless an excellent musician and a ready composer. His oldest brother was the violinist and pianist John Adolphus Stansbury (1792–1837) who for many years was the orchestra leader at the Theatre Royal, Bristol and of the Bristol concerts. His other brother was Joseph Augustus Stansbury (1793–1831), who played the double bass. His surviving and younger sisters (a third died in infancy) were the singers and actresses Emma Stansbury (1803–1862) and Louisa Jane Stansbury (born 1808), the latter marrying Joseph Hall in 1834. By the age of 12 George Stansbury was proficient in the piano, the violin and flute and could play most of the rest of the instruments in an orchestra. He was 20 years old. In Bristol he was the chorus conductor for Messiah in 1823 under George Thomas Smart, also appearing as conductor and tenor soloist at other local venues. In May 1827 he appeared alongside his sisters at a benefit performance at the Assembly Rooms in Bristol during which he sang and played the piano. After various other local engagements, with and without his sisters, Stansbury took up the post of leader of the band at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London, leaving his wife and their four children in Bristol. The split proved to be permanent, for in London he took up with Mary Ann Whittle (born 1812), a young dancing girl at Covent Garden and with whom he had three children. in Gay's The Beggar’s Opera in August 1828 based on Scott's novel Ivanhoe, in which he took part in a quartet with the three main characters. This work was based on Ivanhoé by Rossini to a French-language libretto by Émile Deschamps and Gabriel-Gustave de Wailly. For the British version the music was arranged by Michael Rophino Lacy who also translated and revised the original libretto by Deschamps and de Wailly. During this period Stansbury wrote the music for a number of successful songs for Mme Vestris, including ‘The Banners of Blue’, 'Bonnie Scotland, I adore three' and ‘Spring is Coming’. while in 1832 he was Beppo in Fra Diavolo. In 1833 he played the title roles in Midas and in Comus before playing Mammbre in The Israelites in Egypt. He composed the scores for various plays including for Shakespeare’s Early Days; Comrades and Friends; The Royal Fugitive; Neuha’s Cave; The Tartar Witch and the Pedlar Boy; Waverley; The Vision of the Bard, and Puss in Boots, or Harlequin and the Miller's Son. Despite having a liberal income during the height of his success he died in poverty, his hard living and hard spending leaving him with nothing. More importantly, it left his two families - one in Bristol and one in London - with nothing also.

Stansbury's only surviving child born out of wedlock with Mary Ann Whittle was the only one of his children to follow him on to the stage. His daughter Mary Ann Georgiana Stansbury (1838-1902) became an actress who, with her husband, the actor Henry Loydall (1830-1903), toured the provinces of northern England and Scotland during the 1860s and after.