C. Morton Horne
{{Short description|Irish writer and actor}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox military person
|name = C. Morton Horne
|birth_name =Cyril Morton Horne
|image = Captain Cyril Morton Horne.jpg
|birth_date = {{birth year|1885}}
|death_date = {{death year and age|1916|1885}}
|allegiance = {{flag|United Kingdom}}
|branch ={{Army|United Kingdom}}
|rank =Captain
|commands =King's Own Scottish Borderers
|battles = First World War
}}
C. Morton Horne (1885–1916) was an Irish writer and musical comedy performer who lost his life on a battlefield in France during the First World War.
Biography
Cyril Henry Morton Horne's birth was recorded in the spring of 1885 in the Weston District of Dublin.Ireland, Civil Registration Births Index, 1864-1958 Nothing here is known of his family in part because census records from this period were not preserved by the Irish government. His first major role most likely came in early 1910 as Lieutenant Varga in The Balkan Princess at London's Prince of Wales Theatre. Later that year Horne traveled to America aboard the SS Amerika.Passenger Manifest; 14 November 1910 where he would appear in four Broadway musical productions over the next few seasons. Horne played The Honorable Richard Mirables opposite Emmy Wehlen in Marriage a la Carte at the Casino Theatre in January, 1911.[http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=7267 Marriage a la Carte - IBDB.com] In November of that year Horn began a successful run as Captain Graham in Little Boy Blue at the Lyric Theatre and later at the Grand Opera House.[http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=7413 Little Boy Blue – IBDB.com] He played Billy Brand in the less than successful production of The Charity Girl staged at the Globe Theatre in October, 1912.[http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=5132 The Charity Girl – IBDB.com] Horne's final Broadway performance came in the spring of 1913 at the Globe Theatre as Capt. Etienne de Bouvray in a revival of Mlle. Modiste[http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=6901 Mlle. Modiste – IBDB.com]
In January, 1915 Horne sailed for Britain aboard the SS Megantic to join the struggle in Europe.SS Megantic Passenger Manifest; 22 January 1915 Over the last year of his life Horne wrote a number of songs and poems that were later compiled and published under the title Songs of the Shrapnel Shell, and Other Verse. The following comes from the book's foreword:
Cyril Morton Horne, late Captain of the Seventh Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers, was killed in action, fighting with His Majesty's troops, "Somewhere in France," 27 January 1916. Many of these verses were written in the trenches, between attack and counter-attack, with the shrapnel shells shrieking overhead, with mines and countermines exploding underneath, with the ever constant, surging gray tide of charging infantry threatening at any moment to overwhelm his command. Living for more than a year half-underground, like the moles he so vividly pictures in one of his poems, with the chances a thousand to one against him of ever emerging from the great conflict alive, he wrote these little verses, some of them scribbled in pencil upon scraps of paper, and sent them, one by one, to the woman across the seas to whom he had said good-by when his country called.Captain Horne was but twenty-nine years of age when he was killed under most dramatic circumstances. He gave up his life trying to rescue a wounded British soldier lying in front of the trenches. A shrapnel shell exploded overhead just as his comrades were ready to cheer him for his heroic rescue.[https://books.google.com/books?id=11xEAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Songs+of+the+shrapnel+shell,+and+other+verse%22 Songs of the Shrapnel Shell, and Other Verse by Cyril Morton Horne – 1918]
Cyril Horne was survived by his wife and fellow actor, Marie Ditzen Horne, a Scottish-born resident of New York City at the time of his death. They married in 1911.New York City Clerk, Marriage Certificate #7903 She was performing as the character "Pleasure" for the play Experience when she received news of his death.The San Diego Union, 27 February 1916 His permanent address listed in his probate records was 16 Palmerston – park, Dublin, Ireland.England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1861-1941 She later married fellow actor Ernest Glendinning in 1919, with the marriage lasting until his death.New York City Clerk, Marriage Certificate #13471
Sources
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Category:Irish male stage actors
Category:British military personnel killed in World War I
Category:Irish male musical theatre actors
Category:20th-century British male singers
Category:British Army personnel of World War I