Squire Bancroft

Squire Bancroft


A carte-de-visite portrait of the actor-manager Squire Bancroft (1841-1926), who was knighted in 1897 for his services to the British stage. He is presumably seen here dressed as the popular character Lord Dundreary, who made his first appearance Tom Taylor's successful comedy Our American Cousin.

Squire Bancroft was born Squire White Butterfield at Rotherhithe in 1841. His first London appearance was in 1865 in J. P. Wooler's A Winning Hazard at the Prince of Wales's Theatre off Tottenham Court Road. This theatre was managed by Effie Marie Wilton, whom he married in 1868. The pair continued as joint managers of the theatre.

Mr and Mrs Bancroft produced and starred in all the Thomas William Robertson comedies beginning in 1865 and, after Robertson's death, in revivals of the old comedies, for which they surrounded themselves with an admirable company. Together, Robertson and the Bancrofts are considered to have instigated a new form of drama known as 'drawing-room comedy' or 'cup and saucer drama.'

The Bancroft management at the Prince of Wales's Theatre constituted a new era in the development of the English stage and had the effect of reviving the London interest in modern drama. They also provided their actors with salaries and wardrobes. Also, the Bancrofts redesigned their theatre to suit the increasingly upscale audience. The cheap benches near the stage, where the rowdiest elements of the audience used to sit were replaced by comfortable padded seats, carpets were laid in the aisles, and the pit was renamed the stalls.

Other plays they premiered or produced there were W. S. Gilbert's Allow Me To Explain (1867) and his romantic comedy tribute to Robertson, Sweethearts (1874), as well as Tame Cats (1868), Lytton's Money (1872), The School for Scandal (1874), Boucicault's London Assurance (1877), and Diplomacy (1878, an adaptation of Sardou's Dora).

In 1879, the Bancrofts moved to the Haymarket Theatre, where they produced or starred in a revival of Money, in Sardou's Odette (for which they engaged Madame Helena Modjeska), in Fedora, and in Pinero’s Lords and Commons, with revivals of previous successes.

Having made a considerable fortune, they retired in 1885. Bancroft was knighted in 1897. Mrs Bancroft died in 1921; her husband died in 1926. Both are buried in Brompton Cemetery.

Photographed by Sarony, Hill and Thrupp of Birmingham.

The sitter has signed the mount recto in the lower margin as ‘Sydney Bancroft,' the name that he used briefly when he was first beginning his career.

 


Code: 127481
© Paul Frecker 2024