Hilda Jacobson

Hilda Rebecca Jacobson (13 October 1879 – 22 December 1954), sometimes billed as Hilda Jacobsen, was an English actress and singer of the Edwardian era who appeared in the works of Gilbert and Sullivan and Edwardian musical comedy. A mezzo-soprano, she created the role of Honoria Crystal in The Catch of the Season at the Vaudeville Theatre in September 1904.

Early life Jacobson was born in London, the daughter of Solomon Nathan Jacobson (1844–1915), a "Commercial Traveller in Cigars", and Louisa née Davis (1856–1909). She was a cousin of the actresses Eileen Kerin, Nora Kerin, Julia Neilson, Lily Hanbury and Hilda Hanbury.

Career and later years

Jacobson made her London début as Teresa in L'Amour Mouille by Louis Varney at the Lyric Theatre (April–June 1899). She was one of two actresses to play Inez in the long-running Edwardian musical comedy Florodora, again at the Lyric (November 1899 – July 1900). The 1911 Census for England lists her as an "Actress and Singer" living with her husband and young son Lawrence Rushworth Jnr (1906–1977), her widowed father Solomon Jacobson and a cook and parlourmaid. In 1939 the couple were living in Finchley in London with Jacobson's occupation listed as "unpaid domestic duties".

Jacobson died on 22 December 1954, aged 75. Her funeral was held at Golders Green Crematorium.