Kyrle Bellew
Encyclopedia
Harold Kyrle Money Bellew (28 March 1850 – 2 November 1911), more commonly known as Kyrle Bellew, was a British stage and silent film
actor in the late 19th and early 20th century. Bellew notably toured with Cora Brown-Potter in the 1880s and 1890s and was cast as the leading man in many stage productions alongside Brown-Potter. He was also a signwriter, gold prospector and rancher mainly in Australia.
, Lancashire, England to Reverend John Chippendale Montesquieu Bellew and Eva Maria (née Money) Bellew. His birth year has been reported as 1850, 1855 and 1857. His death certificate lists his year of birth as 1857. However the 1850 birth year is more likely because his parents were living in India and divorced by 1855 and his christening record is dated 27 May 1850. Bellew himself stated, in his own words published a year after his death, that his mother told him he was born on a Thursday 28 March sometime between 1845 to 1860, but 1850 is the only year between 1845 and 1860 in which 28 March falls on a Thursday.
). His younger sister, Ida Percy Clare, was born 17 June 1852 in Calcutta, India. Evelyn Bellew emigrated to the United States in the late 1860s, married Anita Killen and died childless on 1 December 1900. Sibyl Bellew married civil engineer John Hooper Wait in March 1873 and lived in Bhownuggur, India until her husband's suicide on 27 June 1876. At the time of the 1891 Census, she was living as a nun in the Poor Clares convent on Cornwall St. in Kensington
, and she died childless in 1927. Clare Bellew married Joseph Boulderson, of the 68th Regiment, in 1874 and had two children, Ida Sybil Mary and Shadwell Joseph Boulderson, before dying at age 49 in the first quarter of 1902.
His mother, Eva Maria Money (born 12 June 1824) was the youngest daughter of Captain Rowland Money, a rear-admiral in the Royal Navy
, and Mary Ann Tombs. She married her first husband Henry Edmund Michell Palmer, a soldier in the Indian Army, on 8 February 1843. However, Palmer died of "hill fever
" in Madras, India on 9 November 1846. The young widow then married John Chippendale Montesquieu Bellew on 27 March 1847. John Bellew was born John Chippendale Higgin in Lancashire
on 3 August 1823 to Robert and Anne Maria (née Bellew) Higgin. Bellew was an acquaintance of Eva's brother-in-law, Reverend Samuel Gambier, who believed him to be a natural-son of his friend and actor, William Macready, whom Bellew did resemble and correspond with regularly until 1850. Bellew changed his name to his mother's maiden name in 1844 while still a student at St Mary Hall
, and he was ordained an Anglican minister in 1848. Bellew was first appointed curate of St Andrews in Worcester in 1848 and was transferred to Prescot in 1850, where Kyrle Bellew was born.
, a civil servant with the East India Company
. John Bellew sued for divorce from Eva on 6 March 1855 on grounds of adultery. Eva counter-sued, claiming ill-treatment. John Bellew named Eden as his wife's lover and was granted a divorce on unequivocal grounds. Ashley Eden married Eva Bellew on 13 August 1861, and she lived in India until her death on 10 January 1877. John Bellew received custody of the children and left India in 1855. Kyrle Bellew described this tumultuous time in his life in his posthumous work Short Stories. While erroneously stating that the Bellew family left India during the 1857 Indian Mutiny, he relates that the return voyage to England solidified what would become a life-long love of the sea for Bellew. On their return to England, the family first settled in St. Johns Wood where Rev. Bellew was assistant minister of St. Phillips on Regent St. The family moved to Hamilton Terrace, Marylebone
in 1857 after John Bellew was placed in charge of St. Marks. John Bellew married Emily Louisa Wilkinson (née East) in Dublin, Ireland on 23 September 1861 and the Bellews resided at Bedford Chapel in Bloomsbury
from 1862 to 1868. Kyrle Bellew was educated at the Lancaster Royal Grammar School
and received lessons from private tutors, notably learning Latin along with Leslie Ward
. However his home life was not happy because Kyrle Bellew did not get along with his new stepmother or stepsister, Maud Wilkinson. In the early 1860s he attempted to run away from home to the East India docks to start a life at sea, but he was ultimately returned home to his worried father. While John Bellew thought he should enter the ministry, the elder Bellew agreed to allow Kyrle Bellew to have a naval career.
, a famous training ship. The Conway was one of four training ships moored on the Mersey River
that taught young boys how to be adept sailors, and it was specifically catered to developing officers for the Merchant Marines. Bellew spent two years on board the Conway.
In 1888 Bellew began giving acting lessons to Mrs. Leslie Carter
, a married socialite. In 1889 Bellew was named as a co-respondent in the highly publicised divorce case of Mrs. Carter. By the mid 1880s he was an actor of note and was considered a proper tutor for Caroline Dudley, Mrs. Carter's birth name. His preparing of Dudley for the stage required ample amounts of time with her and away from her husband. Eventually Mr. Carter became jealous and suspicious of the attention his wife was receiving, leading him to name Bellew and other men as his wife's lovers.
In the last decade of his life Bellew tended to his mining property in Australia, requiring making the long journeys back and forth to the United States. Finally at the turn of the century and in the US for good, he continued his popularity on Broadway premiering such plays as Raffles the Amateur Cracksman
to US audiences. He found time to venture into primitive motion pictures, which at the time were considered well beneath an actor of his stature. He died of pneumonia on 2 November 1911, in Salt Lake City, where he had been appearing in a play called The Mollusc.
productions, Les Faux Bonshommes and Un Menage en Ville, and then moved on to Shakespearean theatre at Sadler's Wells Theatre
in London before relocating to Australia. Le Grande travelled to Melbourne via the passenger ship Lincolnshire from London on 4 December 1872 in the company of noted tragic actor Boothroyd Fairclough. She gave birth during the voyage on 15 January 1873 and arrived in Hobson's Bay on 20 February with an infant.
Bellew married Le Grande on 27 October 1873 at St Patrick's Cathedral
under the name Harold Dominick Bellew. Bellew and Le Grande separated within a few weeks of marriage and did not live together again. One account of the brief marriage holds that Le Grande was previously the mistress of Boothroyd Fairclough. She secretly wed Bellew but returned to Fairclough when he discovered them on their honeymoon. In Bellew's posthumous book, Short Stories, he relates a tale, attributed to a friend named Jack, that details the specifics of a sham marriage to a French actress. Several of the details in the story parallel known facts about Bellew and Le Grande, such as their marriage date and the presence of an illegitimate child. Bellew formally divorced Le Grande in 16 May 1888. Le Grande reportedly bore Bellew a son, Cosmo Kyrle Bellew, whose birth date is often cited as 1885. However, Cosmo Bellew's World War I draft registration card lists a birth date of 23 November 1874, with his nearest relative listed as Marjorie Bellew. There is no mention of a son in any of Kyrle Bellew's obituaries, Bellew was estranged from Le Grande following their wedding and the fate of Le Grande's previous child remains unknown. After divorcing Bellew, Le Grande married Hector Alexander Wilson and continued to tour with acting companies in the United States, Britain and Canada. Hector Wilson died in January 1893 and left an estate in Australia valued a £ 27,000 to Eugenie.
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
actor in the late 19th and early 20th century. Bellew notably toured with Cora Brown-Potter in the 1880s and 1890s and was cast as the leading man in many stage productions alongside Brown-Potter. He was also a signwriter, gold prospector and rancher mainly in Australia.
Family and early life
Harold Kyrle Money Bellew was born on 28 March in PrescotPrescot
Prescot is a town and civil parish, within the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley in Merseyside, England. It is 8 miles to the east of Liverpool city centre and lies within the historic boundaries of Lancashire. At the 2001 Census, the population was 11,184 .Prescot marks the beginning of the...
, Lancashire, England to Reverend John Chippendale Montesquieu Bellew and Eva Maria (née Money) Bellew. His birth year has been reported as 1850, 1855 and 1857. His death certificate lists his year of birth as 1857. However the 1850 birth year is more likely because his parents were living in India and divorced by 1855 and his christening record is dated 27 May 1850. Bellew himself stated, in his own words published a year after his death, that his mother told him he was born on a Thursday 28 March sometime between 1845 to 1860, but 1850 is the only year between 1845 and 1860 in which 28 March falls on a Thursday.
The Bellews
Bellew was the second son and third-born of the four Bellew children. He had an older brother, Evelyn Montesquieu Gambier (born 25 October 1847) and an older sister, Eva Sibyl Bellew (born October 1848 in WorcesterWorcester
The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...
). His younger sister, Ida Percy Clare, was born 17 June 1852 in Calcutta, India. Evelyn Bellew emigrated to the United States in the late 1860s, married Anita Killen and died childless on 1 December 1900. Sibyl Bellew married civil engineer John Hooper Wait in March 1873 and lived in Bhownuggur, India until her husband's suicide on 27 June 1876. At the time of the 1891 Census, she was living as a nun in the Poor Clares convent on Cornwall St. 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...
, and she died childless in 1927. Clare Bellew married Joseph Boulderson, of the 68th Regiment, in 1874 and had two children, Ida Sybil Mary and Shadwell Joseph Boulderson, before dying at age 49 in the first quarter of 1902.
His mother, Eva Maria Money (born 12 June 1824) was the youngest daughter of Captain Rowland Money, a rear-admiral in the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
, and Mary Ann Tombs. She married her first husband Henry Edmund Michell Palmer, a soldier in the Indian Army, on 8 February 1843. However, Palmer died of "hill fever
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
" in Madras, India on 9 November 1846. The young widow then married John Chippendale Montesquieu Bellew on 27 March 1847. John Bellew was born John Chippendale Higgin in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
on 3 August 1823 to Robert and Anne Maria (née Bellew) Higgin. Bellew was an acquaintance of Eva's brother-in-law, Reverend Samuel Gambier, who believed him to be a natural-son of his friend and actor, William Macready, whom Bellew did resemble and correspond with regularly until 1850. Bellew changed his name to his mother's maiden name in 1844 while still a student at St Mary Hall
St Mary Hall, Oxford
St Mary Hall was an academic hall of the University of Oxford associated with Oriel College since 1326, but which functioned independently from 1545 to 1902.- History :...
, and he was ordained an Anglican minister in 1848. Bellew was first appointed curate of St Andrews in Worcester in 1848 and was transferred to Prescot in 1850, where Kyrle Bellew was born.
Childhood in India and England
In late 1851, Reverend Bellew was appointed as an assistant chaplain to St John's Cathedral in Calcutta, India. The Bellews arrived in India on 17 November 1851 aboard the passenger ship Hotspur and moved into a large home on Harrington Street in Calcutta. However the Bellews did not have a happy marital life in India, the two separating in November 1853 after John Bellew discovered licentious correspondence between Eva and 23-year-old Ashley EdenAshley Eden
The Hon. Sir Ashley Eden KCSI CIE was an official and diplomat in British India.Eden was the third son of Robert John Eden, 3rd Lord Auckland and bishop of Bath and Wells. His uncle was George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland...
, a civil servant with the East India Company
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
. John Bellew sued for divorce from Eva on 6 March 1855 on grounds of adultery. Eva counter-sued, claiming ill-treatment. John Bellew named Eden as his wife's lover and was granted a divorce on unequivocal grounds. Ashley Eden married Eva Bellew on 13 August 1861, and she lived in India until her death on 10 January 1877. John Bellew received custody of the children and left India in 1855. Kyrle Bellew described this tumultuous time in his life in his posthumous work Short Stories. While erroneously stating that the Bellew family left India during the 1857 Indian Mutiny, he relates that the return voyage to England solidified what would become a life-long love of the sea for Bellew. On their return to England, the family first settled in St. Johns Wood where Rev. Bellew was assistant minister of St. Phillips on Regent St. The family moved to Hamilton Terrace, Marylebone
Marylebone
Marylebone is an affluent inner-city area of central London, located within the City of Westminster. It is sometimes written as St. Marylebone or Mary-le-bone....
in 1857 after John Bellew was placed in charge of St. Marks. John Bellew married Emily Louisa Wilkinson (née East) in Dublin, Ireland on 23 September 1861 and the Bellews resided at Bedford Chapel in Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury
-Places:* Bloomsbury is an area in central London.* Bloomsbury , related local government unit* Bloomsbury, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Maryland...
from 1862 to 1868. Kyrle Bellew was educated at the Lancaster Royal Grammar School
Lancaster Royal Grammar School
Lancaster Royal Grammar School is a voluntary aided, selective grammar school for boys in Lancaster, England. The school has been awarded specialist Technology College and Language College status. Old boys belong to The Old Lancastrians...
and received lessons from private tutors, notably learning Latin along with Leslie Ward
Leslie Ward
Sir Leslie Matthew Ward , was a British portrait artist and caricaturist who drew or painted numerous portraits which were regularly published by Vanity Fair, under the pseudonyms "Spy" and "Drawl".-Background:...
. However his home life was not happy because Kyrle Bellew did not get along with his new stepmother or stepsister, Maud Wilkinson. In the early 1860s he attempted to run away from home to the East India docks to start a life at sea, but he was ultimately returned home to his worried father. While John Bellew thought he should enter the ministry, the elder Bellew agreed to allow Kyrle Bellew to have a naval career.
Naval service and early exploits
In 1866, Bellew was sent to train on the HMS ConwayHMS Conway (school ship)
HMS Conway was a naval training school or "school ship", founded in 1859 and housed for most of its life aboard a 19th-century wooden battleship. The ship was originally stationed on the Mersey near Liverpool, then moved to the Menai Strait during World War II. While being towed back to Birkenhead...
, a famous training ship. The Conway was one of four training ships moored on the Mersey River
Mersey River
Mersey River may mean:*the Mersey River in Tasmania, Australia.*the Mersey River in Nova Scotia, Canada.*the River Mersey in Liverpool, England....
that taught young boys how to be adept sailors, and it was specifically catered to developing officers for the Merchant Marines. Bellew spent two years on board the Conway.
Stage career
He nevertheless turned to acting. With romantic profile and blond looks he was well suited for romances and melodramatic adventure stories of the day. In the 1880s and 90s he toured the world with a famous leading lady Mrs. Brown-Potter who was also known as Cora Brown Potter. They took Shakespearean and other classic plays from the United States to Australia. In Australia Bellew prior to being an actor was a reader, goldminer, and apparently bought a large amount of property.In 1888 Bellew began giving acting lessons to Mrs. Leslie Carter
Mrs. Leslie Carter
Caroline Louise Dudley was an American silent film and stage actress who used her married name, Mrs. Leslie Carter, as her stage name to spite her former husband. She was called "The American Sarah Bernhardt"....
, a married socialite. In 1889 Bellew was named as a co-respondent in the highly publicised divorce case of Mrs. Carter. By the mid 1880s he was an actor of note and was considered a proper tutor for Caroline Dudley, Mrs. Carter's birth name. His preparing of Dudley for the stage required ample amounts of time with her and away from her husband. Eventually Mr. Carter became jealous and suspicious of the attention his wife was receiving, leading him to name Bellew and other men as his wife's lovers.
In the last decade of his life Bellew tended to his mining property in Australia, requiring making the long journeys back and forth to the United States. Finally at the turn of the century and in the US for good, he continued his popularity on Broadway premiering such plays as Raffles the Amateur Cracksman
A. J. Raffles
Arthur J. Raffles is a character created in the 1890s by E. W. Hornung, a brother-in-law to Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Raffles is, in many ways, a deliberate inversion of Holmes — he is a "gentleman thief," living in the Albany, a prestigious address in London, playing...
to US audiences. He found time to venture into primitive motion pictures, which at the time were considered well beneath an actor of his stature. He died of pneumonia on 2 November 1911, in Salt Lake City, where he had been appearing in a play called The Mollusc.
Eugénie Le Grande
Eugénie Marie Seraphié Le Grande was a French stage-actress that was born and educated in Paris, France. She first appeared in the French vaudevilleVaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
productions, Les Faux Bonshommes and Un Menage en Ville, and then moved on to Shakespearean theatre at Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre
Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue located in Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington. The present day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500 seat main auditorium and the Lilian Baylis Studio, with extensive...
in London before relocating to Australia. Le Grande travelled to Melbourne via the passenger ship Lincolnshire from London on 4 December 1872 in the company of noted tragic actor Boothroyd Fairclough. She gave birth during the voyage on 15 January 1873 and arrived in Hobson's Bay on 20 February with an infant.
Bellew married Le Grande on 27 October 1873 at St Patrick's Cathedral
St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne
St Patrick's Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, and seat of its archbishop, currently Denis J. Hart. The building is known internationally as a leading example of the Gothic Revival style of architecture.In 1974 Pope Paul VI...
under the name Harold Dominick Bellew. Bellew and Le Grande separated within a few weeks of marriage and did not live together again. One account of the brief marriage holds that Le Grande was previously the mistress of Boothroyd Fairclough. She secretly wed Bellew but returned to Fairclough when he discovered them on their honeymoon. In Bellew's posthumous book, Short Stories, he relates a tale, attributed to a friend named Jack, that details the specifics of a sham marriage to a French actress. Several of the details in the story parallel known facts about Bellew and Le Grande, such as their marriage date and the presence of an illegitimate child. Bellew formally divorced Le Grande in 16 May 1888. Le Grande reportedly bore Bellew a son, Cosmo Kyrle Bellew, whose birth date is often cited as 1885. However, Cosmo Bellew's World War I draft registration card lists a birth date of 23 November 1874, with his nearest relative listed as Marjorie Bellew. There is no mention of a son in any of Kyrle Bellew's obituaries, Bellew was estranged from Le Grande following their wedding and the fate of Le Grande's previous child remains unknown. After divorcing Bellew, Le Grande married Hector Alexander Wilson and continued to tour with acting companies in the United States, Britain and Canada. Hector Wilson died in January 1893 and left an estate in Australia valued a £ 27,000 to Eugenie.
External links
- Kyrle Bellew at IBDb.com
- Kyrle Bellew photo gallery(NY Public Library, Billy Rose collection)
- Kyrle Bellew picture gallery(Univ. of Washington, Sayre collection)
- J.C.M. Bellew, father of Kyrle Bellew(NY Public Library, Rose Collection)
- Kyrle Bellew, findagrave.com
- Cosmo Kyrle Bellew, Findagrave.com