Born in Coventry. From an acting family her stage career started at age 8. When 17 she retired from the stage to marry artist G.F. Watts, 30 years her senior. Her desire for the stage was greater than that for her husband and they separated after less than a year. She disappeared and her father misidentified a body recovered from the Thames as hers. She resurfaced to reveal that she was, aged 20, having a happy affair with the architect-designer Edward W. Godwin, which produced two children. She went on to have two more marriages, each to actors (Irving and an American 30 years her junior), but her greatest partnership was professional, with the actor/manager Henry Irving. Died at her home in Kent, Smallhythe, which is now a museum. John Gielgud was her great-nephew.
This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Ellen Terry
Commemorated ati
Queen's Theatre - Long Acre
Queen's Theatre The old Queen's Theatre occupied this site for just eleven y...
Other Subjects
Lyceum Theatre
A theatre with this name has been in the locality since 1765. The present site opened on 14th July 1834 to a design by Samuel Beazley. In 1904 the facade and portico were retained but the main buil...
Charles Rider Noble
Theatre manager and film cameraman. Born in Roydon, Essex. Details of his life are sketchy, but he is supposed to have managed a theatre in Northampton before taking over the newly built Brixton Th...
first public building in the world to be lit throughout by electricity
See Savoy Theatre.
Dame Flora Robson
Actor. Born Flora McKenzie Robson in South Shields, County Durham. She made her stage debut in 1921, but found it difficult to obtain parts because she did not have the required good looks. She tem...
Tricycle Theatre / Kiln Theatre
Originally opened as a home for the Wakefield Tricycle Company which started in a room behind the Pindar of Wakefield pub in King's Cross. Inside the foyer of the Tricycle Theatre/Cinema is a plaq...
Previously viewed
Monmouth House
The Duke of Monmouth obtained a site on the south side of Soho Square (then called King’s Square) in 1681 on which the house was built. After his execution it was owned by the Bateman family and be...
Sloane Court East bomb - wall plaque
SW1, Turk's Row, Garden House School
We are extremely grateful to London Memorial who have done the research on this event, all recorded in their excellent website, from whic...
14 subjects commemorated
Lady Jane Rayne
Born London Married Lord Max Rayne as his second wife in 1965. Max had made a fortune in the post-war reconstruction boom and set up the charitable Rayne Foundation primarily working in the arts. H...
St Marys, Haggerston
Built by John Nash in the Gothic style with a tall tower. Destroyed by WW2 bombs and the site made into a playground.
Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them