Lucy Isabella Buckstone

Lucy Isabella Buckstone (September 1857 – 17 March 1893) was an English actress born to a noted British stage family. She was perhaps best remembered for her portrayals of Annette in the Leopold David Lewis drama The Bells, and Lucy Ormond in Peril by Scott and Stephenson.

Lucy Isabella Buckstone

She began her stage career about 1875 and continued acting into the early 1890s.

Life and career

Buckstone was born in Lewisham to the actor-manager John Baldwin Buckstone and his wife, Isabella Copeland Buckstone.[1] Her 11 siblings included brothers John Copeland Buckstone and Rowland (born 1860). All three siblings would eventually follow their father into acting careers.[2]

Buckstone made her first appearance on stage at the Croydon Theatre as Gertrude in Augustus Harris's The Little Treasure. She first appeared at the Haymarket Theatre on 26 December 1875 as Ada Ingot in David Garrick, and later played Florence Trenchard in Our American Cousin and Lucy Dorrison in Home, from the French L’Adventuriér by Emile Augier.[3][4] In 1876 at the Lyceum Theatre, she played Annette in The Bells by Leopold David Lewis, adapted from the French, and Lady Frances Touchwood in The Belle's Stratagem.[5] In June 1876 she appeared at the Drury Lane Theatre as Maria in a testimonial performance of School for Scandal held in behalf of her father.[6] That same year at the Prince of Wales's Theatre she was Lucy Ormond in Peril by Scott and Stephenson, an adaptation of Sardou's Nos intimes.[5] The following year Buckstone appeared as Minnie in Engaged, a comedy by W. S. Gilbert at the Haymarket.[7]

On 6 January 1879, at St. James's Church, Piccadilly, Buckstone was married to Henry Edwards Smithes, the son of a wealthy London wine merchant. Her husband owned a large tract of cattle land near Victoria, Kansas, and for a time she joined him there, though eventually she returned to England after tiring of life on the prairie.[8][9]

In December 1882 Buckstone joined Genevieve Ward at the Olympic Theatre playing Alice in the Merivale and Grove drama, Forget-Me-Not, and the following year she played Abigail Hill in The Queen’s Favorite by Sydney Grundy, followed by Gladys Grant in Rachel, Lucy Bertram in Guy Mannering and Bertha de Mottrville in A Great Catch. In 1884 Buckstone played Edith Marsland at the Prince Theatre in Charles Hawtrey's The Private Secretary, and the following year, she was Blanche Denham in The Denhams, adapted from The Crisis by Thomas Holcroft. In February 1891 at the Globe Theatre she was Gwendolen Pettigrew in the George William Godfrey comedy The Parvenu, and that July at the Criterion Theatre, she was Flora in Miss Decima, by F. C. Burnand, from the French.[10][11][12]

Buckstone died in London on 17 March 1893 at the age of 34.[13]

Notes
  1. "Bucksone Lucy Isabella", FreeBMD, accessed 29 December 2014
  2. Parker, John. "Buckstone, J. C.", Who's Who in the Theatre, 1916, p. 71. Retrieved 29 July 2013
  3. Clapp, John Bouvé and Edgett, Edwin Francis. Plays of the Present, 1902, p. 130. Retrieved 29 July 2013
  4. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Buckstone, John Baldwin" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 733.
  5. Converse Beach, Frederick and George Edwin Rines, ed. The Americana: a universal reference library, Vol. 3, Scientific American compiling department, 1912, accessed 29 July 2013
  6. Scraps of English News, Rockhampton Bulletin, 22 June 1876, p. 2. Retrieved 30 July 2013
  7. Ainger, p. 134
  8. Pascoe, Charles Eyre. Our Actors and Actresses. The dramatic list, 1880, p. 72. Retrieved 29 July 2013
  9. Forsythe, James L. The English Colony at Victoria, Another View. Retrieved 29 July 2013
  10. The Theatre, 2 June 1884, p. 322. Retrieved 29 July 2013
  11. Adams, William Davenport. Dictionary of the Drama, (The Crisis), 1904, p. 355. Retrieved 28 July 2013
  12. Godfrey, George William. "The Pavenu; an Original Comedy in three Acts". Retrieved 28 July 2013
  13. The New International Encyclopædia, Volume 3, 1907, p. 610. Retrieved 29 July 2013

References
  • Ainger, Michael (2002). Gilbert and Sullivan – A Dual Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-514769-3.
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