Decima Moore
Encyclopedia
Lilian Decima, Lady Moore-Guggisberg, CBE
(11 December 1871 – 18 February 1964), better known by her stage name Decima Moore, was an English
singer and actress, known for her performances in soprano
roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
and in musical comedies. She was the youngest of ten siblings (hence, the name "Decima"). Her sister, actress Eva Moore
, was the mother of actress Jill Esmond
, the first wife of Laurence Olivier
.
Moore made her stage debut starring as Casilda in the Gilbert and Sullivan
hit, The Gondoliers
, in 1889 at the age of 17 and stayed with the company for two years. She then starred in a variety of West End theatre
plays and musical pieces over the next two years, joining the George Edwardes
company to create the ingénue role of Rose Brierly in the hit musical comedy
A Gaiety Girl
in 1893. After touring with Edwardes's company in musicals, she returned to England and light opera later playing the role of Scent of Lilies in The Rose of Persia
(1899) and starring in Florodora
(1900–01) and My Lady Molly
(1903), among other West End shows.
In 1905, Moore married Major (later Brigadier General) Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, moving with him to West Africa. Over the next decade, she frequently returned to England and also toured, mostly in legitimate theatre, as well as singing in concerts. In 1908, she was one of the founding members of the Actresses' Franchise League and became very active in the suffrage movement. Her last London stage appearance was in 1914. During World War I
, Moore worked in France on behalf of British soldiers. In 1918 she was honoured with the C.B.E. (Commander of the British Empire) for her services to her country. Moore was active in charity work during her long retirement. She was the last surviving original creator of a Gilbert and Sullivan role.
, Sussex
. She was the ninth daughter and tenth child of the Sussex county analytical chemist, Edward Henry Moore and his wife, Emily Strachan. Four of her sisters sang on the concert platform or the stage, including Eva (1870–1955), Jessie (d. 1910) and Bertha Moore. She was educated at Miss Pringle's school and then Boswell House College, Brighton and sang in the church choir. After leaving school in 1887, she won the Victoria Scholarship to study singing at the Blackheath Conservatoire of Music
. She then studied voice with Rose Hersee
.
. There she created the leading role of Casilda in The Gondoliers
, the last great Gilbert and Sullivan
hit, which opened at the Savoy Theatre
on 7 December 1889. W. S. Gilbert
asked her if she had ever acted. When she replied in the negative, he replied, "So much the better; you'll have less to unlearn!" Moore related her first-night experience as follows:
In fact, Moore earned good reviews. The Times
wrote that she "has a delightfully fresh voice... she sings with very good taste and gives distinct promise of becoming a very acceptable actress; her appearance is extremely taking, and on the whole, a more successful début has not recently taken place". Her next role was Polly in Captain Billy
(1891), the companion piece to The Nautch Girl
. Her older sister, Jessie Moore, who sang with one of D'Oyly Carte's touring companies, replaced Decima in Captain Billy
in November 1891.
Moore left the Savoy when her commitment expired, starring in several West End Theatre
pieces, including Miss Decima by Edmond Audran
and F. C. Burnand (replacement cast, 1891–92), A Pantomime Rehearsal by Cecil Clay (1892 at the Royal Court Theatre
), The Maelstrom (1892), Ophelia in Gilbert's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
(1892), The Wedding Eve (1892 at the Trafalgar Theatre), and the title role in a revival of B. C. Stephenson
and Alfred Cellier
's hit, Dorothy
(1892–93). In 1893, Moore returned to the D'Oyly Carte organisation to create the role of Bab in the unsuccessful Jane Annie
, with a libretto by J. M. Barrie
and Arthur Conan Doyle
and music by Ernest Ford
.
Moore then left D'Oyly Carte again to appear in La fille de Madame Angot
at the Criterion Theatre. Next, she created the ingénue role of Rose Brierly in A Gaiety Girl
(1893–94), one of George Edwardes
's hit musical comedies
. In 1894, Edwardes sent Moore and the company to New York and then on tour in the U.S. While in Richmond, New York
in February 1896, still touring in A Gaiety Girl, Moore married a fellow cast member, Cecil Ainslie Walker-Leigh. Walker-Leigh was an Irish career officer in the British Army. He served in the Boer
and Great Wars and retired with the rank of Colonel. The company was then sent to Australia, where she starred as Bessie Brent in the musical comedy, The Shop Girl
, and later played the Prima Donna of the Ambiguity Theatre in In Town
. To please her mother, they had a church wedding. They had a son in 1898, William Esmond Ormond Walker-Leigh, who eventually had a Navy career, but Moore divorced her husband in 1901, at a time when divorce was still rare and considered dishonourable.
after which she starred in the musical comedy Florodora
(1900–01) at the Lyric Theatre. In 1901 Moore appeared in both A Diplomatic Theft at the Garrick Theatre
, London and The Swineherd and the Princess at the Royalty Theatre
. She then toured in The Gay Cadets (1902). In 1903, she starred as Alice Coverdale in another success, My Lady Molly
, at the Lyceum Theatre.
In 1905, Moore remarried and accompanied her second husband, Major (later Brigadier General Sir) Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, to West Africa. It was also his second marriage. An officer in the Royal Engineers, he was appointed director of surveys and later governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Gold Coast
and then British Guiana
. In 1909, the two would jointly publish We Two in West Africa, an account of their life in the developing Gold Coast. During her frequent trips to England, she continued to appear on stage. In 1906, she sang in the chorus of Trial by Jury
in the Ellen Terry
Golden Jubilee celebration matinee. Her stage appearances were mostly in legitimate theatre, such as W. Somerset Maugham
's comedy, Mrs. Dot, with Marie Tempest
and Ben Jonson
's The Vision of Delight, both in 1908. She also played in his masque The Hue and Cry after Cupid in 1911. Moore also toured America and Australia, as well as appearing throughout the British Isles and in concerts at major venues, such as Albert Hall
and St. James's Hall, until 1914. Her last London stage appearance was in a matinée performance of Vantage Out in 1914.
In 1908, Moore was one of the founding members of the Actresses' Franchise League, which supported the women's suffrage movement through pro-suffrage propaganda plays, readings and lectures. She was also a member of the Actress' Freedom League. Moore was active in the suffrage movement (as was her sister Eva), sitting on boards, attending meetings, appearing in suffragist plays and films and often reciting the monologue Woman This And Woman That.
At the outbreak of World War I
, Moore became employed in France in war work, while Guggisberg rejoined the army. Moore founded the Women's Emergency Corps, which organised women volunteers, and established several leave clubs, acting as director general of the British Navy, Army and Air Force Leave Club in Paris. After the armistice, in Cologne
, she organised a club for the army of occupation. In 1918 she was honored with the C.B.E. (Commander of the British Empire) for her services and was awarded the overseas medal and the Médaillon de reconnaissance. While her husband was a colonial governor, she served her country as Honorary Exhibition Commissioner for the Gold Coast at the British Empire Exhibition (1923–26), was Chairman of The Play Actors (1927–29), and Chairman of the Overseas Section of the Forum Club (1928–32). During World War II
in Paris, she reestablished the British Leave Club in 1939. She fled the city on 11 June 1940, only a few hours before the entry of the Germans, attaching a notice to the doors of the club: "Temporarily Closed".
Lady Moore-Guggisberg continued to perform charity work on behalf of veterans, women and others throughout her retirement. She also appeared in the film Nine Till Six (1931). Her husband died in 1930. She was elected vice-president of the Gilbert & Sullivan Society in 1960, when she was the last surviving creator of a Gilbert and Sullivan role.
Lady Moore-Guggisberg died in Kensington
, London in 1964, aged 92.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(11 December 1871 – 18 February 1964), better known by her stage name Decima Moore, was an English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
singer and actress, known for her performances in soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
and in musical comedies. She was the youngest of ten siblings (hence, the name "Decima"). Her sister, actress Eva Moore
Eva Moore
Eva Moore was an English actress. Her career on stage and in film spanned six decades, and she was active in the women's suffrage movement.-Early life and career:...
, was the mother of actress Jill Esmond
Jill Esmond
Jill Esmond was an English actress and first wife of Sir Laurence Olivier.-Early life:Esmond was born Jill Esmond Moore in London, the daughter of stage actors Henry V. Esmond and Eva Moore. While her parents toured with theatre companies, Esmond spent her childhood in boarding schools until she...
, the first wife of Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
.
Moore made her stage debut starring as Casilda in the Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
hit, The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances , closing on 30 June 1891...
, in 1889 at the age of 17 and stayed with the company for two years. She then starred in a variety of West End theatre
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
plays and musical pieces over the next two years, joining the George Edwardes
George Edwardes
George Joseph Edwardes was an English theatre manager of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond....
company to create the ingénue role of Rose Brierly in the hit musical comedy
Edwardian Musical Comedy
Edwardian musical comedies were British musical theatre shows from the period between the early 1890s, when the Gilbert and Sullivan operas' dominance had ended, until the rise of the American musicals by Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin and Cole Porter following World War I.Between...
A Gaiety Girl
A Gaiety Girl
A Gaiety Girl is an English musical comedy in two acts by a team of musical comedy neophytes: Owen Hall , Harry Greenbank and Sidney Jones . It opened at Prince of Wales Theatre in London, produced by George Edwardes, on 14 October 1893 and ran for 413 performances. The show starred C...
in 1893. After touring with Edwardes's company in musicals, she returned to England and light opera later playing the role of Scent of Lilies in The Rose of Persia
The Rose of Persia
The Rose of Persia; or, The Story-Teller and the Slave, is a two-act comic opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by Basil Hood. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 29 November 1899, closing on 28 June 1900 after a profitable run of 211 performances...
(1899) and starring in Florodora
Florodora
Florodora is an Edwardian musical comedy and became one of the first successful Broadway musicals of the 20th century. The book was written by Jimmy Davis under the pseudonym Owen Hall, the music was by Leslie Stuart with additional songs by Paul Rubens, and the lyrics were by Edward Boyd-Jones...
(1900–01) and My Lady Molly
My Lady Molly
My Lady Molly is a comic opera in two acts with a libretto by George H. Jessop, with additional lyrics by Percy Greenbank and Charles H. Taylor, and music by Sidney Jones. It opened at the Theatre Royal in Brighton, England, on 11 August 1902 and then at Terry's Theatre in London on 14 March 1903,...
(1903), among other West End shows.
In 1905, Moore married Major (later Brigadier General) Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, moving with him to West Africa. Over the next decade, she frequently returned to England and also toured, mostly in legitimate theatre, as well as singing in concerts. In 1908, she was one of the founding members of the Actresses' Franchise League and became very active in the suffrage movement. Her last London stage appearance was in 1914. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Moore worked in France on behalf of British soldiers. In 1918 she was honoured with the C.B.E. (Commander of the British Empire) for her services to her country. Moore was active in charity work during her long retirement. She was the last surviving original creator of a Gilbert and Sullivan role.
Life and career
Moore was born in BrightonBrighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
. She was the ninth daughter and tenth child of the Sussex county analytical chemist, Edward Henry Moore and his wife, Emily Strachan. Four of her sisters sang on the concert platform or the stage, including Eva (1870–1955), Jessie (d. 1910) and Bertha Moore. She was educated at Miss Pringle's school and then Boswell House College, Brighton and sang in the church choir. After leaving school in 1887, she won the Victoria Scholarship to study singing at the Blackheath Conservatoire of Music
The Conservatoire
The Conservatoire is an educational charity in Blackheath, on the border of the London boroughs of Greenwich and Lewisham...
. She then studied voice with Rose Hersee
Rose Hersee
Rose Hersee was an English operatic soprano. She was a founder-member of the Carl Rosa Opera Company and later formed and performed in the Rose Hersee Opera Company.-Biography:...
.
Early career and D'Oyly Carte years
Moore intended to begin a concert career, but she made her debut at age 17 with the D'Oyly Carte Opera CompanyD'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
. There she created the leading role of Casilda in The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances , closing on 30 June 1891...
, the last great Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
hit, which opened at the Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
on 7 December 1889. W. S. Gilbert
W. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
asked her if she had ever acted. When she replied in the negative, he replied, "So much the better; you'll have less to unlearn!" Moore related her first-night experience as follows:
- I had to make my first entrance in a gondola, with my back to the audience; and when I turned round to get out of it and faced the house my feelings were such that I shall never forget. I had only been to about three theatres in my life, and, of course, had never seen an audience in evening dress from the stage. When I did see that audience... I felt a "catch" in the chest as if I had fallen into an ice-cold bath and it had taken away all my breath. I stuck my finger nails into my palms and said, "This won't do!" and walked down the stage, trying to remember all I had been told to do and not to do. I got through the evening in a kind of dream, wept all the way home in the hansom, convinced I had been a failure.
In fact, Moore earned good reviews. The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
wrote that she "has a delightfully fresh voice... she sings with very good taste and gives distinct promise of becoming a very acceptable actress; her appearance is extremely taking, and on the whole, a more successful début has not recently taken place". Her next role was Polly in Captain Billy
Captain Billy
Captain Billy is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by Harry Greenbank and music by François Cellier. It was first performed at the Savoy Theatre on 24 September 1891 until 16 January 1892, as a curtain raiser to The Nautch Girl, and from 1 February 1892 to 18 June 1892, as a curtain raiser to...
(1891), the companion piece to The Nautch Girl
The Nautch Girl
thumb|right|250px|Solomon , with Gilbert and Sullivan irate at his success at the SavoyThe Nautch Girl, or, The Rajah of Chutneypore is a comic opera in two acts, with a book by George Dance, lyrics by Dance and Frank Desprez and music by Edward Solomon...
. Her older sister, Jessie Moore, who sang with one of D'Oyly Carte's touring companies, replaced Decima in Captain Billy
Captain Billy
Captain Billy is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by Harry Greenbank and music by François Cellier. It was first performed at the Savoy Theatre on 24 September 1891 until 16 January 1892, as a curtain raiser to The Nautch Girl, and from 1 February 1892 to 18 June 1892, as a curtain raiser to...
in November 1891.
Moore left the Savoy when her commitment expired, starring in several West End Theatre
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
pieces, including Miss Decima by Edmond Audran
Edmond Audran
Achille Edmond Audran was a French composer best known for several internationally successful operettas, including Les noces d'Olivette , La mascotte , Gillette de Narbonne , La cigale et la fourmi , Miss Helyett , and La poupée .After Audran's initial success in Paris, his works also became a...
and F. C. Burnand (replacement cast, 1891–92), A Pantomime Rehearsal by Cecil Clay (1892 at the Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
), The Maelstrom (1892), Ophelia in Gilbert's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Gilbert)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, A Tragic Episode, in Three Tabloids is a short comic play by W. S. Gilbert, a parody of Hamlet by William Shakespeare...
(1892), The Wedding Eve (1892 at the Trafalgar Theatre), and the title role in a revival of B. C. Stephenson
B. C. Stephenson
Benjamin Charles Stephenson or B. C. Stephenson was an English dramatist, lyricist and librettist. After beginning a career in the civil service, he started to write for the theatre, using the pen name "Bolton Rowe". He was author or co-author of several long-running shows of the Victorian theatre...
and Alfred Cellier
Alfred Cellier
Alfred Cellier was an English composer, orchestrator and conductor.In addition to conducting and music directing the original productions of several of the most famous Gilbert and Sullivan works and writing the overtures to some of them, Cellier conducted at many theatres in London, New York and...
's hit, Dorothy
Dorothy (opera)
Dorothy is a comic opera in three acts with music by Alfred Cellier and a libretto by B. C. Stephenson. The story involves a rake who falls in love with his disguised fiancée.It was first produced at the Gaiety Theatre in London on in 1886...
(1892–93). In 1893, Moore returned to the D'Oyly Carte organisation to create the role of Bab in the unsuccessful Jane Annie
Jane Annie
Jane Annie, or The Good Conduct Prize is an opera written in 1893 by J. M. Barrie and Arthur Conan Doyle, with music by Ernest Ford, a conductor and occasional composer....
, with a libretto by J. M. Barrie
J. M. Barrie
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. The child of a family of small-town weavers, he was educated in Scotland. He moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright...
and Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
and music by Ernest Ford
Ernest Ford
Ernest A. Claire Ford was an English composer of operas and ballet music and a conductor.-Life and career:Ford was born in Warminster, Wiltshire, England, the son of the vestry clerk and organist there. From 1868-73, he sang in the chorus at Salisbury Cathedral...
.
Moore then left D'Oyly Carte again to appear in La fille de Madame Angot
La fille de Madame Angot
La fille de Madame Angot is an opéra comique in three acts by Charles Lecocq. The French text was by Clairville, Paul Siraudin and Victor Koning.-Performance history:...
at the Criterion Theatre. Next, she created the ingénue role of Rose Brierly in A Gaiety Girl
A Gaiety Girl
A Gaiety Girl is an English musical comedy in two acts by a team of musical comedy neophytes: Owen Hall , Harry Greenbank and Sidney Jones . It opened at Prince of Wales Theatre in London, produced by George Edwardes, on 14 October 1893 and ran for 413 performances. The show starred C...
(1893–94), one of George Edwardes
George Edwardes
George Joseph Edwardes was an English theatre manager of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond....
's hit musical comedies
Edwardian Musical Comedy
Edwardian musical comedies were British musical theatre shows from the period between the early 1890s, when the Gilbert and Sullivan operas' dominance had ended, until the rise of the American musicals by Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin and Cole Porter following World War I.Between...
. In 1894, Edwardes sent Moore and the company to New York and then on tour in the U.S. While in Richmond, New York
Richmond, New York
Richmond is a town in Ontario County, New York, United States. The population was 3,452 at the 2000 census. The town is on the western border of the county, south of Rochester.- History :...
in February 1896, still touring in A Gaiety Girl, Moore married a fellow cast member, Cecil Ainslie Walker-Leigh. Walker-Leigh was an Irish career officer in the British Army. He served in the Boer
Boer War
The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....
and Great Wars and retired with the rank of Colonel. The company was then sent to Australia, where she starred as Bessie Brent in the musical comedy, The Shop Girl
The Shop Girl
The Shop Girl was a musical comedy in two acts written by H. J. W. Dam, with Lyrics by Dam and Adrian Ross and music by Ivan Caryll, and additional numbers by Lionel Monckton and Ross. It was first produced by George Edwardes at the Gaiety Theatre in London, opening on 24 November 1894...
, and later played the Prima Donna of the Ambiguity Theatre in In Town
In Town (musical)
In Town is a musical comedy written by Adrian Ross and James T. Tanner, with music by F. Osmond Carr and lyrics by Ross. It was produced by George Edwardes at the Prince of Wales Theatre, opening on 15 October 1892, and transferred to the Gaiety Theatre on 26 December 1892, running for a...
. To please her mother, they had a church wedding. They had a son in 1898, William Esmond Ormond Walker-Leigh, who eventually had a Navy career, but Moore divorced her husband in 1901, at a time when divorce was still rare and considered dishonourable.
Later career and adventures
Back in England, Moore left Edwardes's company and returned to light opera. She starred in The White Silk Dress by A. McLean (1896) at the Prince of Wales Theatre and Lost, Stolen and Strayed (1897). She toured abroad extensively before returning to the D'Oyly Carte in 1899, for the third and last time, to play Scent of Lilies in The Rose of PersiaThe Rose of Persia
The Rose of Persia; or, The Story-Teller and the Slave, is a two-act comic opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by Basil Hood. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 29 November 1899, closing on 28 June 1900 after a profitable run of 211 performances...
after which she starred in the musical comedy Florodora
Florodora
Florodora is an Edwardian musical comedy and became one of the first successful Broadway musicals of the 20th century. The book was written by Jimmy Davis under the pseudonym Owen Hall, the music was by Leslie Stuart with additional songs by Paul Rubens, and the lyrics were by Edward Boyd-Jones...
(1900–01) at the Lyric Theatre. In 1901 Moore appeared in both A Diplomatic Theft at the Garrick Theatre
Garrick Theatre
The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a...
, London and The Swineherd and the Princess at the Royalty Theatre
Royalty Theatre
The Royalty Theatre was a small London theatre situated at 73 Dean Street, Soho and opened on 25 May 1840 as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School and finally closed to the public in 1938. The architect was Samuel Beazley, a resident in Soho Square, who also designed St James's Theatre, among...
. She then toured in The Gay Cadets (1902). In 1903, she starred as Alice Coverdale in another success, My Lady Molly
My Lady Molly
My Lady Molly is a comic opera in two acts with a libretto by George H. Jessop, with additional lyrics by Percy Greenbank and Charles H. Taylor, and music by Sidney Jones. It opened at the Theatre Royal in Brighton, England, on 11 August 1902 and then at Terry's Theatre in London on 14 March 1903,...
, at the Lyceum Theatre.
In 1905, Moore remarried and accompanied her second husband, Major (later Brigadier General Sir) Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, to West Africa. It was also his second marriage. An officer in the Royal Engineers, he was appointed director of surveys and later governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Gold Coast
Gold Coast (British colony)
The Gold Coast was a British colony on the Gulf of Guinea in west Africa that became the independent nation of Ghana in 1957.-Overview:The first Europeans to arrive at the coast were the Portuguese in 1471. They encountered a variety of African kingdoms, some of which controlled substantial...
and then British Guiana
British Guiana
British Guiana was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, now the independent nation of Guyana.The area was originally settled by the Dutch at the start of the 17th century as the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice...
. In 1909, the two would jointly publish We Two in West Africa, an account of their life in the developing Gold Coast. During her frequent trips to England, she continued to appear on stage. In 1906, she sang in the chorus of Trial by Jury
Trial by Jury
Trial by Jury is a comic opera in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its...
in the Ellen Terry
Ellen Terry
Dame Ellen Terry, GBE was an English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Among the members of her famous family is her great nephew, John Gielgud....
Golden Jubilee celebration matinee. Her stage appearances were mostly in legitimate theatre, such as W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham , CH was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and, reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.-Childhood and education:...
's comedy, Mrs. Dot, with Marie Tempest
Marie Tempest
Dame Marie Tempest DBE was an English singer and actress known as the "queen of her profession".Tempest became the most famous soprano in late Victorian light opera and Edwardian musical comedies. Later, she became a leading comic actress and toured widely in North America and elsewhere...
and Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
's The Vision of Delight, both in 1908. She also played in his masque The Hue and Cry after Cupid in 1911. Moore also toured America and Australia, as well as appearing throughout the British Isles and in concerts at major venues, such as Albert Hall
Albert Hall
Albert P. Hall is an American actor.Born in Brighton, Alabama, Hall graduated from the Columbia University School of the Arts in 1971. That same year he appeared Off-Broadway in The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel and on Broadway in the Melvin Van Peebles musical Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death...
and St. James's Hall, until 1914. Her last London stage appearance was in a matinée performance of Vantage Out in 1914.
In 1908, Moore was one of the founding members of the Actresses' Franchise League, which supported the women's suffrage movement through pro-suffrage propaganda plays, readings and lectures. She was also a member of the Actress' Freedom League. Moore was active in the suffrage movement (as was her sister Eva), sitting on boards, attending meetings, appearing in suffragist plays and films and often reciting the monologue Woman This And Woman That.
At the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Moore became employed in France in war work, while Guggisberg rejoined the army. Moore founded the Women's Emergency Corps, which organised women volunteers, and established several leave clubs, acting as director general of the British Navy, Army and Air Force Leave Club in Paris. After the armistice, in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, she organised a club for the army of occupation. In 1918 she was honored with the C.B.E. (Commander of the British Empire) for her services and was awarded the overseas medal and the Médaillon de reconnaissance. While her husband was a colonial governor, she served her country as Honorary Exhibition Commissioner for the Gold Coast at the British Empire Exhibition (1923–26), was Chairman of The Play Actors (1927–29), and Chairman of the Overseas Section of the Forum Club (1928–32). During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in Paris, she reestablished the British Leave Club in 1939. She fled the city on 11 June 1940, only a few hours before the entry of the Germans, attaching a notice to the doors of the club: "Temporarily Closed".
Lady Moore-Guggisberg continued to perform charity work on behalf of veterans, women and others throughout her retirement. She also appeared in the film Nine Till Six (1931). Her husband died in 1930. She was elected vice-president of the Gilbert & Sullivan Society in 1960, when she was the last surviving creator of a Gilbert and Sullivan role.
Lady Moore-Guggisberg died in Kensington
Kensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
, London in 1964, aged 92.