Violet Cameron

Violet Lydia Thompson (7 December 1862 – 25 October 1919), known professionally as Violet Cameron, was an English actress and singer who gained fame in Robert Planquette's operettas Les cloches de Corneville and Rip Van Winkle, and Francis Chassaigne's opéra bouffe Falka, and notoriety for her affair with Hugh Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale.

Biography Cameron was born in London in 1862 to Mary Josephine (née Brougham) and William Melfington Thompson, a linen merchant. Her "aunt" was the Victorian burlesque actress and dancer Lydia Thompson. She also played at the Adelphi Theatre and the Globe. In 1876 she created the role of Joconde at the Criterion Theatre in H. B. Farnie's burlesque Piff Paff and soon played Perdita in A Winter's Tale in Liverpool. Later in the year, she was engaged at the Folly Theatre, where she appeared in burlesque and opéra bouffe productions, including Polly in Farnie's burlesque of Robinson Crusoe, Pearlina in an adaptation of Charles Lecocq called Sea Nymphs, Antoinette in Farnie and Robert Reece's adaptation of Jacques Offenbach's La créole. Her greatest success at the Folly came in 1878 as Germaine in the long-running British premiere of Robert Planquette's Les cloches de Corneville.

Cameron then moved to the Strand Theatre, where she appeared in Farnie's burlesque, Nemesis and then played Suzanne in his translation of Offenbach's Madame Favart (1879). In 1881, she moved to Alexander Henderson's Comedy Theatre, where she sang the title role in Edmond Audran's The Mascot and had another great success in 1882 as Gretchen in Planquette's Rip Van Winkle. In 1883, she sang the title roles in Von Suppé's Boccaccio and Chassaigne's Falka. This was followed by other light operas at the Comedy. In 1885, she was engaged at the Avenue Theatre, where she played the lead in Bad Boys, an adaptation of the French piece Clara Soleil, and created the role of Dudley in Reece and Farnie's Kenilworth. The following year, she created the title role in Farnie's burlesque of Lurline.

In 1893, Cameron played Ethel Sportington in the musical comedy Morocco Bound. Cameron continued to perform until 1903. Her last role was the Mother Superior in the Edwardian musical comedy The School Girl.

After a short illness she died in Worthing in Sussex on 25 October 1919 and is buried at Broadwater cemetery, Worthing.