Winifred Emery

Winifred Emery (born Maud Isabel Emery; 1 August 1861 – 15 July 1924) was an English actress and actor-manager of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was the wife of the actor Cyril Maude.

Born into a family of actors, Emery began acting as a child. Her career grew through the 1880s and 1890s as she played leading roles in the West End of London. After a period away from the stage, she returned with leading roles in the company of Herbert Beerbohm Tree at His Majesty's Theatre. She continued to act steadily in her own touring theatre company with her husband and in London theatres until 1922.

Early life and career Emery was born in Manchester, Lancashire, the daughter of Samuel Anderson Emery and granddaughter of John Emery, both well-known actors in their day. Her first stage appearance was in 1870, aged 8, in J. B. Buckstone's The Green Bushes at the Alexandra Theatre in Liverpool. Her first London appearance was on 23 December 1874 when she played Happy New Year in the pantomime Beauty and the Beast at the Princess's Theatre. In 1879 she joined Marie Litton's company before appearing with Wilson Barrett at the Grand Theatre in Leeds. She moved with Barrett to the Court Theatre in London in October 1879. There she was first noticed by the critics when she appeared in the one-act play A Clerical Error.

Emery appeared in A Bridal Tour at the Haymarket Theatre in August 1880, and performed at the St James's Theatre with Sir John Hare, William Hunter Kendal and Madge Kendal. In July 1881 she joined the company of Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theatre, and there she appeared in The Bells and The Merchant of Venice. She later played at Toole's Theatre and at the Vaudeville Theatre with Thomas Thorne in The Rivals. In 1884 she became the understudy for Ellen Terry at the Lyceum Theatre and toured the United States with Henry Irving, playing in Twelfth Night, Much Ado about Nothing and The Merchant of Venice. Also for Irving, in October 1885 Emery played the title role in Olivia by W. G. Wills and toured the United States again in 1887–8. In the same year, and at the same theatre, she played leading roles in The School for Scandal and She Stoops to Conquer, among others. In February 1896 she appeared at the Lyceum Theatre under the management of Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson. and The Second in Command, by Robert Marshall, in 1901. She made her theatrical 'comeback' in February 1905, when she played Beatrice in Much Ado about Nothing opposite Herbert Beerbohm Tree at His Majesty's Theatre. In January 1906 she appeared at the Waldorf Theatre as Mrs Pellender in The Superior Miss Pellender. Emery formed her own theatrical company and with it she and her husband toured provincial theatres, the two of them starring in Olivia and Her Son by Horace Annesley Vachell. This play transferred to the Playhouse Theatre, then under Cyril Maude's management, in March 1907. On 22 December 1919 she married Captain William Fraser, DSO, MC (1890–1964), who eventually rose to the rank of Brigadier.

Emery brought up her niece, Winifred Isabel Emery (1890–1972), after the girl was abandoned by Emery's brother in 1895. This niece, together with her pupil Ruby Preece, was present when dramatist W. S. Gilbert died in his lake at Grim's Dyke in May 1911. Winifred Isabel Emery was the mother of poet David Gascoyne.