Gwen Lally
{{short description|English actor and pageant master}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name =
| image = File:Gwen Lally, Pageant Master.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Gwen Lally
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1882|03|01}}
| birth_place = Fulham, London
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1963|04|14|1882|03|01}}
| death_place = Tunbridge Wells, Kent
| other_names =
| occupation = Actor and pageant master
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
Gwen Lally {{post-nominals|OBE}} (born Gwendolin Rosalie Lally Tollandal Speck, 1 March 1882 – 14 April 1963) was an English pageant master, actor, theatre producer, playwright and lecturer. Lally regularly defied gender conventions and often chose to wear 'masculine' clothing that was typical of the era, such as trousers and a top hat. As the first woman pageant maker she produced many historical pageants for smaller towns and organisations as well as major city pageants which involved casts of thousands.
Early life
Lally was born at 20 Perham Road, Fulham, London, to 'gentleman' Jocelyn Henry Speck and Rosalie Hughes Dalrymple. She was the eldest of three children.{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-59378|title=Lally, Gwen [real name Gwendolin Rosalie Lally Tollandal Speck] (1882–1963), pageant master and theatre producer |year=2004 |language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/59378|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |access-date=2019-10-10}} As a child she had a passion for Shakespeare and acting, and became an actress despite parental opposition.{{Cite news|title=The Power Behind the Battle Pageant. Magnetic Personality of Miss Gwen Lally. England's Only Woman Pageant Producer|date=24 February 1932|work=Eastbourne Gazette|page=17}}
She grew up on the Oxfordshire/Warwickshire border where her father, who had taken holy orders, was curate at Banbury (1887-1890) and vicar of Wroxton (1892-1907).{{Cite journal |last=Reid |first=Ellie |date=2022 |title=Performing the past: the pageant makers of Banburyshire. |url=https://banburyhistoricalsociety.org/uploads/pdf/24/C&CH24-2022-03-06.pdf |journal=Cake and Cockhorse |volume=24 |pages=29–39 |via=Banbury Historical Society}} There, she frequently contributed to church and village entertainments. In 1901, she performed as Olivia in Twelfth Night along with Frank Stevens (later pageant master Frank Lascelles) at a fete in Banbury in aid of Banbury National Schools.
Career
In 1906, Lally began her career at His Majesty’s Theatre, London, under the management of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. She also worked in touring theatre and music halls, and at the Old Vic. Lally only ever appeared on stage as a female once, in Dinner Together in 1914, and even then her character was a ‘male impersonator'.{{Cite web|url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/1066-battle-of-hastings-abbey-and-battlefield/history-and-stories/gwen-lally/|title=Gwen Lally, Pageant Master|website=English Heritage|access-date=2019-10-10}} She claimed "the distinction of being the only actress who has never worn skirts on the stage".{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19341023.2.173|title=Woman Pageant "Master" A Full-Time Career|date=23 October 1934|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|access-date=11 October 2019}} However, in 1907 she appeared in the Oxford Historical Pageant in the role of Queen Eleanor.{{Cite web |title=Pageanteers in the Archives 1: Gwen Lally: a Pageant Master in the making. {{!}} Historical Pageants |url=https://historicalpageants.ac.uk/publications/blog/pageanteers-archives-1-gwen-lally/ |access-date=2023-06-25 |website=historicalpageants.ac.uk}}
As a director and producer she worked at repertory theatres in Leeds, where she had her own repertory company at the Little Theatre, and Westcliff on Sea.{{Cite news|title=Miss Gwen Lally. Pageant Master and Play Producer.|date=17 April 1963|work=The Times (London)|page=13}} She encouraged town and village drama movements, lecturing on drama and critiquing student productions at Village Drama Society schools.{{Cite news|title=Village Drama. Summer School opened near York|date=10 August 1927|work=The Times (London)|page=13}}{{Cite news|title=Village Drama Society at Bath. Work of the Summer School|date=7 September 1926|work=The Times (London)|page=10}} In 1926 she directed the Village Drama Society's summer school in Bath and in York in 1927.{{Cite news|date=26 August 1926|title=Drama For The Villages|page=13|work=The Times (London)}} She was also an adjudicator at the Yorkshire Women's Institute Drama Competitions. In 1924 she produced a performance of Shakespeare's Henry VIII with an all woman cast of about 100 members of the Westerham, Brasted and Crookham Hill Women's Institutes in Kent.{{Cite news|title="Henry VIII" Played by Women. Performance at Westerham|date=16 June 1924|work=The Times (London)|page=18}}
Lally wrote two plays, acting in both of them: Pierrot Philanders (1917) and The Great Moment (1918).{{Cite news|title=The Strand|date=31 May 1917|work=The Stage|page=14}}{{Cite news|title=In Stageland|date=27 May 1918|work=Globe|page=4}}
Lally is best known as a pageant maker, and the first woman to succeed in this work. Other well known pageant masters were Louis N. Parker and Frank Lascelles. The pageant master was responsible for the production and coordination of casts of performers and musicians who were often volunteers. Lally produced many pageants including:
- Pageant of Poole, Dorset (1952): involved 1500 performers{{Cite news|title=Miss Gwen Lally. Successful Pageant at Poole|date=23 August 1952|work=The Tewkesbury Register and Agricultural Gazette|page=1}}{{Cite news|title=Poole Pageant. History Dramatised|date=7 August 1952|work=The Stage|page=10}}
- Pageant of Dudley (1951){{Cite news|title=History Unfolds in £5000 Pageant|date=15 June 1951|work=Staffordshire Advertiser|page=5}}
- Malvern Pageant, Worcestershire (1951){{Cite news|title=Miss Gwen Lally. Pageants at Malvern and Dudley|date=27 January 1951|work=The Tewkesbury Register and Agricultural Gazette|page=1}}
- Pageant of Birmingham: the centenary of the granting of the City of Birmingham's Charter of Incorporation in which 8000 people took part (1938){{Cite news|title=Birmingham's Own Story. Centenary Pageant Splendours|date=13 July 1938|work=The Times (London)|page=9}}
- Pageant of England, Langley Park, Bucks. (1935){{Cite news|title=Pageant of England|date=27 May 1935|work=The Times (London)|page=12}}
- Runnymede Pageant (1934){{Cite news|title=Runnymede Pageant|date=11 June 1934|work=The Times (London)|page=10}}
- Battle Abbey Pageant, Sussex (1932){{Cite news|title=Battle Abbey Pageant. Sussex History|date=5 July 1932|work=The Times (London)|page=16}}
- Tewkesbury Pageant (1931){{Cite news|title=The Rich Past of Tewkesbury. Pageantry of Church and State|date=15 July 1931|work=The Times (London)|page=17}}{{Cite news|title=Link with Tewkesbury Pageant Severed|date=19 April 1963|work=The Tewkesbury Register and Gazette|page=1}}
- The Spirit of Warwickshire, Warwick Castle (1930){{Cite news|title=Pageant at Warwick Castle. Scenes from English History|date=17 July 1930|work=The Times (London)|page=12}}
- Pageant of Ashdown Forest, Kent (1929){{Cite news|title=Ashdown Forest Pageant. A Spectacle of the Centuries|date=16 July 1929|work=The Times (London)|page=18}}
- Westcroft Park, Woking, Surrey (1928)
- Women's Institute village pageant, Rillington, near Malton, North Yorkshire (1927)
- Shere Pageant, Surrey (1925){{Cite news|title=A Pageant at Shere. Episodes of a Thousand Years|date=10 June 1925|work=The Times (London)|page=12}}
- Pageant of Kent, Lullingstone Castle, Kent (1924)
Gwen Lally was known for "her powerful personality and striking figure". In her opinion, pageant making brought together people of all classes and types and promoted friendships between enemies. As a pioneer in the field of pageant making she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1954 New Year Honours. She died on 14 April 1963 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.{{Cite news|title=Obituary. Gwen Lally|date=18 April 1963|work=The Stage|page=13}}
References
Further reading
- Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alexander Hutton & Paul Readman (2019) "‘History taught in the pageant way’: education and historical performance in twentieth-century Britain." History of Education. 48:2, 156-179, {{doi|10.1080/0046760X.2018.1516811}}
External links
- Coggrave, Sarah. [https://blogs.kcl.ac.uk/kingscollections/2018/12/06/the-fascinating-world-of-the-pageant-master/ The Fascinating World of the Pageant Masters] King's Collections (2018). Includes a photo of Gwen Lally.
- Werner, Sarah. [https://collation.folger.edu/2013/02/henry-for-her-time/ a Henry for her time] Folger Shakespeare Library (2013). Pictures of Gwen Lally playing Henry V.
- King's College London. [http://www.historicalpageants.ac.uk The Redress of the Past: Historical Pageants in Britain.]
- National Portrait Gallery. [https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp76736/gwen-lally-gwendolin-rosalie-lally-tollandal-speck Fourteen portraits of Gwen Lally.]
- Gwen Lally's plays on the [https://www.greatwartheatre.org.uk/db/person/1323/ Great War Theatre website]
- Sugg Ryan, Deborah. [https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/1066-battle-of-hastings-abbey-and-battlefield/history-and-stories/gwen-lally/ Gwen Lally, Pageant Master. English Heritage website]
- Papers relating to Gwen Lally held in [https://www.bristol.ac.uk/theatre-collection/ University of Bristol Theatre Collection]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lally, Gwen}}
Category:English women dramatists and playwrights
Category:20th-century English dramatists and playwrights
Category:20th-century English actresses