Kate Terry

A carte-de-visite portrait of the actress Kate Terry (1844-1924), an older sister of Ellen Terry.

Kate retired from the stage in 1867 when she married the wealthy haberdasher and silk merchant Arthur Lewis, but ‘at the height of her career she had been considered a better actress than her more famous sister, Ellen’ (Oxford Companion to the Theatre).

Their marriage produced four daughters. The family lived in considerable style at Moray Lodge in Kensington until Lewis lost all his money. Her grandson, John Gielgud, later wrote that '[m]y grandmother lived very simply and rather resentfully in an ugly little house in West Cromwell Road, and she had no grand clothes and did not give parties any more. She played bridge and had paying guests. This was a sad ending to her career but she never grumbled or groused. She must have hated being out of the picture, even though many people still recognised her and paid court to her' (John Gielgud, An Actor and His Time, 1979).

Photographed by the Southwell Brothers of London.

[From an album compiled by the actor and author Charles Daly.]