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As always, David, a fantastic piece of research.
All I had was a name on a theatre program, and now I have the man's whole life story.

Excellent work, and much appreciated.

Neville

Neville – an unexpected visitor and short term memory combined to make me omit a final proof read of yesterday’s contribution – I have now done a tidy up edit and added an “eyebrows raised comment” regarding the wedding of William & Agnes.

William’s 1917 & 1919 trips were both aboard the “Carmania” – she is worth a Google.

Private Kelly wrote his letter on 29th December 1900. Christmas Day 1900 was a Tuesday, so based on his letter we can say the three performances of Prude’s Progress were on Thursday 27th December 1900, Friday 28th December 1900 & Saturday 29th December 1900.

Now for the ladies:

The Boer War Nurses database were in error regarding the given names of Sister Coates.
She was christened Florence Isabel Aubrey Coates and born in Bristol 14 September 1871
Trained at The London Hospital
Married Gilbert Cecil Tarr 16 June 1903 at All Saints, Clifton, Bristol.
Gilbert was a solicitor and four years younger than Florence.
The had two sons born 1904 & 1906
The family emigrated to Canada in September 1913
She had not returned to nursing by the time of the 1921 Canada census when her youngest son was 15. I cannot find her on the 1931 census and neither can her “first cousin” (presumably a bit removed) who has made available a well researched FT on Ancestry (so all the above info did not take much effort by me).
Florence died 11 July 1962 aged 90 in Vancouver

I have to admit failure regarding Sisters Vincent & Rooke but I have resolved whether it was Sister Mabel Rogers or Sister Annie Grace Rogers who played Primrose Dean. Mabel celebrated Guy Fawkes Night 1900 in Blighty, so Annie Grace was given the part.

From the Sunderland Daily Echo of 5 November 1900



And here is Mabel on the 1901 Census:



And here I presume is Annie Grace Rogers on the 1911 Census:



As you can see was the daughter of a Doctor of Medicine. She was born in Sutton (now part of St Helen’s), Lancashire on 5th December 1865 and baptised on 31st December 1865. She cannot be found on the 1901 Census which supports she was Primrose Dean. Can’t find her on the 1921 Census but at the time of the 1939 Register she was living in Brighton sharing a house with a “Semptress” and her occupation was given as “Unpaid home Duties”. From her probate, she passed away a spinster on 4th January 1955 in Morecombe but she lived in nearby Silverdale (I presume she died in a care home being a day away from her 90th birthday). The executors of her will were a branch of the Westminster Bank in Brighton.

Neville - moving on to the male members of the cast.

William Storrs Fry was the great-grandson of the Elizabeth Fry. William returned to S Africa and died there in the 1930's.

Walter (not William) Hornsby Putnam was the son of a noted NE industrialist who founded the Darlington Forge Co which supplied parts to the major shipbuilders in the NE. Walter served in WW1 as an officer and then became a director of the Darlington Forge Co. His eldest brother was the Managing Director and was knighted.

Can't get anywhere with Hawkins and have yet to look at Deane & Hare.

Neville - I have made no progress with Deane but Arthur Hare was mentioned regularly in the newspapers after he returned from S Africa until he died in 1920 aged 43. This press cutting explains why:




As you can see he was well connected and gave his occupation as "Gentleman" when he attested in February 1900. However, if the newspaper article, dated April 1914, is correct in his 16 year acting career he would have already been on the stage when he attested.

His father was an Admiral who had been involved in every war going and had a good array of medals. His father went to Eton so Arthur may well have done. His father died in 1903 but his mother out-lived him. Arthur ran into financial troubles in 1908 partly caused by a gambling habit. One of his brothers was killed in action early in WW1.

Arthur never married. His favourite part was "Ben Goldfinch" in "A Pair of Spectacles", a part he played over 2,000 times.

Hi
I am pleased to find this forum as I am hoping someone can confirm if the soldiers on horseback on a photo, can be identified as Pembrokeshire Yeomanry. I have tried to upload the photo but the file size is too big, any ideas on how I reduce the size to fit?!
Edit: I think I may have resolved it, I hope you are able to see it!
Many thanks.

It depends what sort of device you are using, what browser you are using and what software you have available etc etc. What I do is right click on the photo/picture which produces a drop down menu with a "Resize Image" option about half way down. You will need to reduce it to less than 500Kb for it to load on this site.