Vera Beringer

Vera Beringer (2 March 1878 – 29 January 1964) was a British actress and writer. As a child she became well-known for playing Little Lord Fauntleroy on the London stage. Later she was a playwright, sometimes using the byline Henry Seton.

Vera Beringer
A young white woman, posed with a fan, holding one side of her skirt with her other hand; she is wearing a loose-fitting dress with round baggy upper sleeves and an open neckline; her hair is long and loose
Vera Beringer, from an 1896 publication
Born(1878-03-02)2 March 1878
London
Died29 January 1964(1964-01-29) (aged 85)
Brighton
Other namesHenry Seton
Occupation(s)Actress, playwright
Parent(s)Oscar Beringer and Aimée Daniell Beringer
RelativesEsme Beringer (sister)

Early life

Vera Beringer was born in London in 1878,[1][Notes 1] the younger daughter of German-born pianist Oscar Beringer and American-born novelist and playwright Aimée Daniell Beringer.[2] Her sister was actress Esme Beringer.[3] Her brother Guy Beringer was a journalist, credited with coining the word "brunch" in 1895.[4] She attended Praetoria House school in Folkestone, together with Ford Madox Ford and Elsie Martindale, who was to become Ford's wife.[5]

Career
Esme (left) and Vera Beringer (right) in My Lady's Orchard (1897)

Beringer became internationally famous in childhood[6] for originating the role of Little Lord Fauntleroy on the London stage in 1888.[7][8] She was coached in stagecraft by Madge Kendal.[9] As a teen, she played Juliet to her sister's Romeo in a production of Romeo and Juliet.[10] Other stage appearances included roles in The Pillars of Society (1889),[11] The Prince and the Pauper (1890),[12] That Girl (1890), On a Doorstep (1890),[13] Holly Tree Inn (1891),[14][15] Richelieu (1896), Our Boys (1896),[16] The Pilgrim's Progress (1896),[17] My Lady's Orchard (1897),[18] A Warm Member (1898),[13] Shadows on the Blind (1898),[13] Alone in London (1900),[19] The Broken Melody (1902),[20] Warp and Woof (1904),[20] Fanny and the Servant Problem (1908),[1] The Whip (1910),[1] The Odd Woman (1912),[21] The Vision of Delight (1912),[21] The Absent-Minded Husband (1913),[21] The Morning Post (1913),[21][22] and The Man from Blankley's (1930). During World War I, she and her sister entertained American and British troops in London.[23] She played Gertrude to her sister's Hamlet in 1938, and the sisters gave further Shakespeare performances during World War II.[3]

Beringer wrote at least nineteen plays, often under the pen name "Henry Seton",[1][20][21][24] including The Boys (1908), False Dawn (1910, with Morley Roberts), Pierrot's Little Joke (1912), Three Common People (1912), A Penny Bunch (1912-1913), The Blue-Stocking (1913, with Mesley Down; an adaptation of Molière's Les Femmes Savantes),[25] Set a Thief (1915),[26] Lucky Jim (1915), Daring (1917), A Pair (1917), The Honourable Gertrude (1918), Biffy (1920, with William Ray), Beltane Night (1923), The Painted Lady (1924),[27] Alice and Thomas and Jane (1932), House Full (1933), and It Might Happen to You (1937).[28] Her play Another Man's Life was adapted for television in 1957.

Lewis Carroll wrote a limerick titled "To Miss Vera Beringer".[29] In 1933 Vera Beringer and Madge Kendal appeared together as speakers in London, advocating for male teachers and headmasters at boys' schools.[30]

Personal life

Beringer lived in Hove in her later years, and died in 1964, aged 85 years, at a nursing home in Brighton.[3] She left all her property to her sister, who survived her.[31]

Notes
  1. Though some sources that give 1879 as the year, Vera Beringer's birth was registered in London in 1878; ''Civil Registration Birth Index'', via Ancestry.com

References
  1. Who's who in the Theatre. Pitman. 1922. p. 63.
  2. "Drama". The Academy and Literature. 52: 287. 9 October 1897.
  3. "Vera Beringer". Great War Theatre. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  4. Rhodes, Jesse (6 May 2011). "The Birth of Brunch: Where Did This Meal Come From Anyway?". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  5. Goldring, Douglas (1948). The last pre-Raphaelite: A record of the life and writings of Ford Madox Ford. London, UK: Macdonald. p. 31.
  6. "A Clever Child Actress". Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919). 25 May 1889. p. 29. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Trove.
  7. Colclough, Dyan (26 January 2016). Child Labor in the British Victorian Entertainment Industry: 1875–1914. Springer. p. 80. ISBN 978-1-137-49603-4.
  8. Carpenter, Angelica Shirley; Shirley, Jean (1 January 1990). Frances Hodgson Burnett: Beyond the Secret Garden. Twenty-First Century Books. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-8225-4905-5.
  9. "How Children Are Trained for the Stage". The Pall Mall Gazette. 23 May 1888. p. 1. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "A Lady Romeo". The Irish Playgoer and Amusement Record. 1: 18. 14 December 1899.
  11. Franc, Miriam Alice (1919). Ibsen in England. Four Seas Company. p. 169.
  12. Dramatic Notes: An Illustrated Year-book of Thestage. D. Bogue. October 1891. p. 195.
  13. Wearing, J. P. (21 November 2013). The London Stage 1890-1899: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Scarecrow Press. pp. 8, 377, 394. ISBN 978-0-8108-9282-8.
  14. Dramatic Notes: An Illustrated Year-book of Thestage. D. Bogue. January 1891. p. 15.
  15. "Vera Beringer's Farewell". The Era. 17 January 1891. p. 10. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. "Vera Beringer". The Era Annual. 1896. p. 29.
  17. "The Pilgrim's Progress". The Theatre. 29: 101. 1 February 1897.
  18. Archer, William (1898). The Theatrical "World" for ... Walter Scott, Limited. p. 275.
  19. "Duchess Theatre, Balham". The Era. 4 August 1900. p. 8. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. Wearing, J. P. (2013). The London Stage 1900-1909: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Scarecrow Press. pp. 86, 194, 422. ISBN 9780810892941.
  21. Wearing, J. P. (19 December 2013). The London Stage 1910-1919: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-9300-9.
  22. "The Woman in the Case". The Observer. 30 March 1913. p. 9. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. "Lady Mary's London Society". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 25 August 1918. p. 12. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. Gale, Maggie (7 March 2008). West End Women: Women and the London Stage 1918 - 1962. Routledge. p. 203. ISBN 978-1-134-88672-2.
  25. Molière (1926). The Blue-stocking: Adapted by Vera Beringer and Mesley Down, from Molière's Comedy "Les Femmes Savantes". S. French, Limited.
  26. "Set a Thief". Great War Theatre. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  27. "Last Night's New Play; 'The Painted Lady' at the Everyman". The Observer. 13 January 1924. p. 13. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. "It Might Happen to You: A New Children's Play at Liverpool". The Guardian. 28 December 1937. p. 12. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  29. Beringer, To Miss Vera. "To Miss Vera Beringer by Lewis Carroll". AllPoetry. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  30. "Women Teachers 'Not Fitted for Boys' Schools'". The Sydney Morning Herald. 15 December 1933. p. 12. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  31. "Miss Fauntleroy Leaves £5943". Evening Standard. 20 April 1964. p. 12. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
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