Marion Mitchell

Marion Mitchell, Lady Davis (19 October 1876 – 5 May 1955) was a New Zealand singer. She married Ernest Davis who became mayor of Auckland.

Biography Playbill for Pollard's at Princess Theatre, Westport, 1893. The whole company performed the operas.

Mitchell was born in Wellington, New Zealand on 19 October 1876, the daughter of Fanny Maria Wheatland Waters and Walter Mitchell.

At the age of 14 she was auditioned by opera producer Tom Pollard who accepted her to undertake training in The Pollard Juvenile Opera Company, his young persons opera company (formerly called the Lilliputian Opera Company). After five years in the company Mitchell was able to play, without rehearsal, prima donna roles in 20 operettas and two pantomimes. They became engaged in 1897.

Ernest Davis belonged to a devout Jewish family which required Mitchell to obtain permission of the Chief Rabbi in London before she could convert to Judaism and they could be married. She married Davis in 1899, who later became Mayor of Auckland; he was knighted in 1937, making her Lady Davis. The couple had two children. The library holds a medical history collection of books, surgical instruments and apothecary jars.