Maud Boyd

Maud Rachel Boyd (1 February 1867 – 23 February 1929) was an opera singer, musical theatre actress and a pantomime principal boy.

Maud Boyd as Prince Charming in Little Red Riding Hood (1893)

Life and career

Boyd was born in 1867 at Chorlton-on-Medlock in Manchester, the daughter of James Boyd (1840–1870) and Elizabeth Montgomery née Hodgson (1834–1921). In 1881 aged 13 she was a boarder at Adelphi House Convent, a Catholic girls' school in Salford in Greater Manchester that was run by nuns. On the curriculum was music.[1]

Lawrence Rea (left), Walter Passmore, Ruth Vincent and Boyd (right) in Leedham Bantock's The Belle of Brittany (1908)

As a pantomime principal boy she played Prince Charming in Little Red Riding Hood at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin in December 1893,[2] the title role in the panto Robin Hood,[3][4] while over Christmas 1894 she was in Babes in the Wood in Liverpool.[5] Christmas 1895 found her in pantomime at the Theatre Royal in Hull[6] From December 1897 she played Alice in Dick Whittington at the Alexandra Theatre in Stoke Newington.[7] In Dublin in 1899 she recorded "The Golden Isle" from A Greek Slave for the Gramophone Company, but it was not released.[8] In Manchester in February 1900 she appeared in The Forty Thieves at the Theatre Royal.[9]

She was Sir Peterborough Court in Cinder Ellen up too Late at the Gaiety Theatre (1891),[10] Kitt in Kitty Grey at the Apollo Theatre (1901),[11][12] Lady Chaldicott in The Belle of Mayfair at the Vaudeville Theatre (1906),[13] Madame Poquelin in The Belle of Brittany at the Queen's Theatre (1908), and Friedrike in A Waltz Dream at Hicks Theatre (1908).[14]

Maud Boyd died in a nursing home in Manchester in 1929 aged 61.[15] She was buried in the Southern Cemetery in Manchester.[16] She never married, and in her will she left £302 7s 8d to her half brother.[17]

References
  1. "Maude Boyd", 1881 England Census, Lancashire, Salford, Greengate via Ancestry.com (subscription required)
  2. The Sketch, 27 December 1893
  3. "The Story of Pantomime", Victoria and Albert Museum, accessed 24 April 2020
  4. The Sketch, 27 December 1893
  5. R. J. Broadbent, Annals of the Liverpool Stage: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time , Benjamin Blom (1969), p. 291 via Google Books
  6. "A Pantomime Rehearsal", University of Hull, accessed 24 April 2020
  7. "The Alexandra Theatre and Opera House, Stoke Newington", Arthur Lloyd.co.uk – The Music Hall and Theatre History Site, accessed 24 April 2020
  8. "Miss Maud Boyd", Sound of the Hound, accessed 24 April 2020
  9. Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser , 1 February 1900, p. 1
  10. Wearing, J. P., The London Stage 1890–1899: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel, Rowman & Littlefield (2014), p. 98 via Google Books
  11. "The Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London", Arthur Lloyd.co.uk – The Music Hall and Theatre History Site, accessed 24 April 2020
  12. Viv Gardner and Diane Atkinson (eds.) Kitty Marion: Actor and Activist, Manchester University Press (2019), p. 196 via Google Books
  13. Gillan, Don. Cast of The Belle of Mayfair, Stage Beauty, accessed 24 April 2020
  14. Wearing, J. P., The London Stage 1900-1909: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel, Rowman & Littlefield (2014), p. 399 via Google Books
  15. Obituary for Miss Maud Boyd - The Stage, 28 February 1929, p. 15
  16. "Maud Rachel Boyd", England & Scotland, Select Cemetery Registers, 1800–2016 via Ancestry.com (subscription required)
  17. "Maud Boyd", England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1995, 1929 via Ancestry.com (subscription required)
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