Actors/musicians: Mabel Maud Coleman (Beaufort)/Louis Beaufort

[alasdair_13]

Mabel Maud Coleman was born in Dundee in 1880. She was my GG Aunt. She apears on the 1891 Scottish Census but cannot be found on the 1901 Scottish or England census.

She next crops up as the informant of her fathers death in 1907 (in Dundee). Her name by then is Mabel Beaufort and she is noted as living in Kent.

In 1911 England Census she is living in Manchester as the wife of a Louis Beaufort (age 50), a musician, she is down as an actress. I can find no evidence of a marriage between them.

Louis, has an interesting past. Seems he is from NSW in Australia, but cannot find any records of his brith or family there. What is certain is he plied his trade as a musician on ships between UK and Australia around 1895-7. However, he was in UK around 1891 as he was prosecuted after running away with a hotel keepers wife and charged with theft (acquitted tho!). He marries a Fammy Elizabeth Steophens in 1895 and has a son - Louis Ormez (Ormez is the name of the ship he worked on). They turn up in the 1901 Scottish census lioving in Paisley where he seems to have been the manager of the Empire Music Hall there.

Louis died in Sept 1923 in Manchester and is buried in a public grave in the Southern Cemetery.

Of Mabel, I cannot find anything on her after the 1911 census.

Both of them crop up in searches of The Stage Archive but I don't have menbership to see the full articles.

Any UK theatre experts out there who might have a steer on where to turn to for any possible information?

Many thanks.

[jc26red]

you could try sending an email to the V&A, they have indexes of Actors/Actresses who performed on the london stage,

 watch Amelia Fox's WDYTYA on bbc iplayer for hints on how to research actors.

[Dazey999]

In 1898 Messrs Carpenter & Eden's company were performing at the West Cliff Saloon Theatre - there was a Miss Mabel Coleman in the cast.
In 1899 she seems to have been a member of Miss Inez Howard's company, performing at the Theatre Royal, Peterborough

[alasdair_13]

A random google search has produced this photo - could this be My Mabel Beaufort? It is one of a series of "cabinet photos by Downey and Tourtin" I located on artfact.com quite by chance.

[alasdair_13]

It's been a long time since I've been on this board but I came across an unexpected update on my search for Mabel Beaufort/Coleman today.

First, although her husband (hmm!) dies in Manchester in 1923 there is no sign of them in the 1921 census for England and Wales. The 1921 Scotland census is not yet available.

But a random search brouight up an entry in the Paisley Poor Law Indexes and the good folks from their provided me with this summary dating from 8 November 1926.

Name: Mabel Coleman Beaufort
Age: 59 years [not correct!]
Birthplace: Church Street, Dundee (24 September 1885 [NB This is wrong - its 1880])
Spouse: Widow of Louis Beaufort, a pianist, born Sydney, Australia, married 12
September 1901 at Stirling?, died in Royal Infirmary, Manchester September 1923 aged 55 years
[this detail is problematic - there's no record of their marriage unless they used different names. Also, Louis Beaufort was then married to a Fanny Stephens and was living in Paisley with his wife and child]

I'm waiting for the arrival of the full digital scan which includes occupation (cleaner), two paragraphs regarding circumstances, 5 previous addresses, and one entry stating that claim was not followed up

All very strange. And no clearer on a death date or place.

Mabel Maud Coleman was born in Dundee in 1880. She was my GG Aunt. She apears on the 1891 Scottish Census but cannot be found on the 1901 Scottish or England census.

She next crops up as the informant of her fathers death in 1907 (in Dundee). Her name by then is Mabel Beaufort and she is noted as living in Kent.

In 1911 England Census she is living in Manchester as the wife of a Louis Beaufort (age 50), a musician, she is down as an actress. I can find no evidence of a marriage between them.

Louis, has an interesting past. Seems he is from NSW in Australia, but cannot find any records of his brith or family there. What is certain is he plied his trade as a musician on ships between UK and Australia around 1895-7. However, he was in UK around 1891 as he was prosecuted after running away with a hotel keepers wife and charged with theft (acquitted tho!). He marries a Fammy Elizabeth Steophens in 1895 and has a son - Louis Ormez (Ormez is the name of the ship he worked on). They turn up in the 1901 Scottish census lioving in Paisley where he seems to have been the manager of the Empire Music Hall there.

Louis died in Sept 1923 in Manchester and is buried in a public grave in the Southern Cemetery.

Of Mabel, I cannot find anything on her after the 1911 census.

Both of them crop up in searches of The Stage Archive but I don't have menbership to see the full articles.

Any UK theatre experts out there who might have a steer on where to turn to for any possible information?

Many thanks.

[melba_schmelba]

Louis and Mabel are on the 1921 Scottish Census at Paisley .

[brigidmac]

Beaufort might have been her stage name not her married name but person who registered death may not have known that

Good luck . Have you tried looking in Australian trove newspaper collection it's free and really good there doesn't have to be an Australian connection because ex pats were hungry for news from home and had newspaper sent to them from all over UK

The Trove society has preserved them and made available.

May great aunt worked as dresser in theatres and kept the leaflets of each performance.

[searchingforanswers]

c.February 1910: A touring production of The Babes in the Wood (Pantomime). Mabel Beaufort stars as Dolly Dene, whilst Louis Beaufort directs the chorus and ballet.

(Source: The Era)

[AlanBoyd]

The last hit for Louis Beaufort at BNA is in The Bioscope in 1914 when he is mentioned as the musical director at the Rink Picture Palace in Paisley.

For Mabel Beaufort the last hit is in The Era in February 1912 where she is mentioned as appearing at the Theatre Royal Stratford as previously described for 1910: as Dolly Dene in a production of The Babes in the Wood with the chorus and ballet under the direction of Louis Beaufort.