Doris Mary Stocker (Lady Segrave) (1886 – 16 December 1968) was a British actress and singer, especially in

Edwardian musical comedy Edwardian musical comedy was a form of British musical theatre that extended beyond the reign of King Edward VII in both directions, beginning in the early 1890s, when the Gilbert and Sullivan operas' dominance had ended, until the rise of the A ...

Early life and career

She was born in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

in India in 1886, the second of three children of George Stocker (1857–1929), an engineer, and Mary Dunn ''née'' Johnston (1862–1946). While her father remained in India for work her mother returned to England with the children where they lived in London from at least 1891 to 1911. Her older sister

Blanche Stocker Blanche Eleanor Stocker (20 July 1884 – 1950) was a British actress and singer, who played minor roles in a string of Edwardian musical comedies and other stage works early in the 20th century. She also played a film role. Life and career ...

was also a stage actress and singer. Stocker began her career as a chorus girl under

George Edwardes George Joseph Edwardes (né Edwards; 8 October 1855 – 4 October 1915) was an English theatre manager and producer of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond. Edwardes started out in theatre ma ...

at the Gaiety Theatre in London and soon played roles in

West End theatre West End theatre is mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres in and near the West End of London.Christopher Innes, "West End" in ''The Cambridge Guide to Theatre'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 1194–1 ...

s: Grace Hufnagle in ''Captain Kidd'' at

Wyndham's Theatre Wyndham's Theatre is a West End theatre, one of two opened by actor/manager Charles Wyndham (the other is the Criterion Theatre). Located on Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster, it was designed c.1898 by W. G. R. Sprague, the archit ...

(1904); J. P. Wearing
''The London Stage 1910–1919: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel''
Rowman & Littlefield (2014), Google Books Angy Loftus in '' The Cingalee'' at

Daly's Theatre Daly's Theatre was a theatre in the City of Westminster. It was located at 2 Cranbourn Street, just off Leicester Square. It opened on 27 June 1893, and was demolished in 1937. The theatre was built for and named after the American impresar ...

(1904); Pepzi in ''

A Waltz Dream ' (''A Waltz Dream'') is an operetta by Oscar Straus with a German libretto by and , based on the novella ' (''Nux, the Prince Consort'') by Hans Müller-Einigen from his 1905 book ' (''Book of Adventures''). The young Jacobson presented Stra ...

'' at Daly's (1911); Lady Diana Camden in ''

Theodore & Co ''Theodore & Co'' is an English musical comedy in two acts with a book by H. M. Harwood and George Grossmith Jr. based on the French comedy ''Théodore et Cie'' by Paul Armont and Nicolas Nancey, with music by Ivor Novello and Jerome Kern a ...

'' at the Gaiety (1912); Gipsy Dancer in '' Gipsy Love'' at Daly's (1912); and the Honorable Baby Vereker in '' To-Night's the Night'' at the Shubert Theatre in New York (1914), repeating the role in London at the Gaiety (1915).

War, marriage and death

In 1915 at the height of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

she accompanied

Sylvia Brett Sylvia Leonora, Lady Brooke, Ranee of Sarawak (born ''The Hon. Sylvia Leonora Brett'', 25 February 1885 – 11 November 1971), was an English aristocrat who became the consort to Sir Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, the last of ...

and Charles Vyner Brooke, whom she hardly knew, on a Japanese steamer to

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the Malaysian state of Sabah to the northeast, ...

, Malaysia, to visit Charles Brooke, the

Rajah of Sarawak The White Rajahs were a dynastic monarchy of the British Brooke family, who founded and ruled the Raj of Sarawak, located on the north west coast of the island of Borneo, from 1841 to 1946. The first ruler was Briton James Brooke. As a reward f ...

. At

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it me ...

, London, on 4 October 1917 she married Sir Henry O'Neal De Hane Segrave (1896–1930), then serving in the war as a Captain in the

Royal Warwickshire Regiment The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, previously titled the 6th Regiment of Foot, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. The regiment saw service in many conflicts and wars, including the Second Boer War ...

and the Royal Flying Corps. After her marriage she retired from the stage. Stocker died in Kensington, London, in 1968, leaving £76,135 in her will.England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1995 for Doris Mary Segrave
1969, Ancestry.com

References

External links

Photographic portraits of Doris Stocker
– National Portrait Gallery, London Collection {{DEFAULTSORT:Stocker, Doris 1886 births 1968 deaths Actresses from Mumbai English women singers Edwardian era English stage actresses 20th-century English actresses