Gertrude Ayton, actress of some renown?

[RedMystic]

Happy Friday Chatters!

A story came up in my family searching but I have nothing but a few anecdotes to direct me. Please help me find anything about Gertrude Ayton of Edinburgh including a picture. I know it's a long shot, but if she was an actress then perhaps something exists.

Here's the background:

James Andrew COPLAND (b.29 Nov 1891-Edinburgh, Scotland d.10 Jan 1895-Edinburgh, Scotland) was a dentist in Edinburgh. He started the Scottish blood transfusion service in the 1920s. He was also an an "amateur thespian" (according to my husband's Grandpa who died many years ago).

James married Gertrude Ayton, an "actress of renown" (also according to my husband's grandpa). This marriage may have occurred before 1914, but again, that's anecdotal.

I can't find anything about Gertrude - and would particularly love a picture if that is remotely possible. If she, as family lore has it, was a actress in Edinburgh in the early part of the 1900s, perhaps a talented Chatter can find a bio & photo.

My Google search is only pulling up one link & that won't open for me. Thanks for any sleuthing you can do.

[groom]

Hi

A Gertrude Ayton is mentioned here http://www.its-behind-you.com/howardwyndham.html as being in Dick Whittington in 1926/27 at the Kings Theatre Edinburgh, but that's all I can see.

[mshrmh]

If the link was to Trove that seems to be to a legal notice for the estate Elizabeth Gertrude Ayton a spinster who died in Australia.

The other link I found quickly was to "It's Behind You" - 60 years of pantomine at Howard & Wyndham. She's listed in 1926-27 Dick Whittington at the Kings Theatre Edinburgh
http://www.its-behind-you.com/howardwyndham.html

No entries that I found in the online version of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for either of the couple.

I'll look a bit more.

(just seem groom has also found the panto)

[nanny jan]

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is her;

http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/sta/search/resultspe.cfm?NID=33102&EID=15310&DID=&AID=


I think the years given for James need another look.  


Nanny Jan

[mshrmh]

Lots of results on the Scottish Theatre Archive site - mainly at the Alhambra Theatre Dundee & the Charles Simon Players:
http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/sta/search/resultspe.cfm?NID=33102&EID=15310&DID=&AID=

Looks as though this may be a resource worth looking at for more info.

(Sorry groom - I'm not really trying to be an echo)!

A newspaper report from the Glasgow Herald 1921
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19211219&id=6ZdAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=N6UMAAAAIBAJ&pg=5853,5697397

[groom]

It was Nanny Jan that found that one.  Strange there isn't a biography anywhere.

[RedMystic]

Thank you for the link mshgmh & groom. That's the link that I found too, but the dang thing times out & won't open.   I'll give it another go in a hour or so to see if my computer likes it any better.

Thank you Nanny Jan. That link works for me. If this is her, she's acting much later in the 1900s than I would have thought. I can see the plays she was in, but no detail on the woman herself.

I'll take another look at James' dates. James was my husband's grandfather's nephew & I'm relying on info from another member of the family.

[RedMystic]

Lots of results on the Scottish Theatre Archive site - mainly at the Alhambra Theatre Dundee & the Charles Simon Players:
http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/sta/search/resultspe.cfm?NID=33102&EID=15310&DID=&AID=

Looks as though this may be a resource worth looking at for more info.

(Sorry groom - I'm not really trying to be an echo)!

A newspaper report from the Glasgow Herald 1921
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19211219&id=6ZdAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=N6UMAAAAIBAJ&pg=5853,5697397

TX mshrmh. I haven't had time to check these yet. Must go walk the dog - back shortly.

Thanks to all for the help so far!

[mshrmh]

Sorry - groom & nanny jan for mixing you up!

I wondered if the Charles Simon Players were a local group (amateur/semi-pro/rep) - the only links I found for them were the same source.

If you can find either date of death there might be something in a local paper at least, that would probably mean a visit to an archive or paying them for research.

The online Guardian/Observer archive (via my local library) has a mention of her appearance in "The Weir of Hermiston" at Theatre Royal Edinburgh (Observer 13.03.1921). Nothing found for him under his full name - there are numerous results for James Copland & Andrew Copland - would need clearer dates to check them out.