Kathleen Saintsbury (4 July 1899 – 1995) was a British actress from the 1920s to the 1970s but who is best known today for playing Cissy Godfrey in the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

comedy ''

Dad's Army ''Dad's Army'' is a British television British sitcom, sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard (United Kingdom), Home Guard during the World War II, Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft (TV producer), David Crof ...

''.

Early life

Saintsbury was born in London in 1899, the younger daughter of the actor H.A. Saintsbury (also a playwright under the name Jay Nibb) and his Irish wife, Florence. According to the 1911 census, her parents were married in 1893, but there is no record of a marriage in England. Saintsbury's older sister, Dorothie Helen (known as Helen) was also an actress. Helen married first the actor

Edgar Norfolk Edgar Norfolk (5 November 1893 – 1980) was a British actor. Norfolk was born Edgar Greenwood. He was the first husband of the actress Helen Saintsbury (a daughter of the actor H.A. Saintsbury); her second husband, Captain Buckley Rutherford, a ...

and, after a divorce, Captain Buckley Rutherford, a son of Sir Ernest Rutherford (a wine importer, not the physicist

Ernest Rutherford Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937) was a New Zealand physicist who came to be known as the father of nuclear physics. ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' considers him to be the greatest ...

, although they were both born in 1871 and are sometimes confused). The marriage to Rutherford took place in 1932; four months later Rutherford shot himself. Distraught, less than a month after Rutherford's suicide, Helen also shot herself. There is some suggestion that Helen was married three times, but it is possible this reflects that her first husband was originally called Edgar Greenwood, and changed his name to Norfolk for the stage.

Stage work

Early in her career, Saintsbury appeared in stage productions: *

Ivor Novello Ivor Novello (born David Ivor Davies; 15 January 1893 – 6 March 1951) was a Welsh actor, dramatist, singer and composer who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. He was born into a musical ...

and

Constance Collier Constance Collier (born Laura Constance Hardie; 22 January 1878 – 25 April 1955) was an English stage and film actress and acting coach. She wrote hit plays and films with Ivor Novello and she was the first person to be treated with insu ...

's '' The Rat'' at the

Grand Opera House, Belfast The Grand Opera House is a theatre in Belfast, Northern Ireland, designed by the most prolific theatre architect of the period, Frank Matcham. It opened on 23 December 1895. According to the Theatres Trust, the "magnificent auditorium is probabl ...

Theatre Royal, Bath The Theatre Royal in Bath, England, was built in 1805. A Grade II* listed building, it has been described by the Theatres Trust as "One of the most important surviving examples of Georgian theatre architecture". It has a capacity for an audien ...

and Lyceum Theatre, Newport, 1925 * Robert Buchanan and Charles Marlowe's '' The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown'', Palace Theatre, Fleetwood, 1928 *F. Brooke Warren's '' The Face at the Window'',

Little Theatre in the Adelphi Little Theatre in the Adelphi was a theatre in London, on what is now John Adam Street just west of the Royal Society of Arts. It should not be confused with either the Haymarket Theatre (also known as the Little Theatre) or the Adelphi Theatre ...

, London, 1929 *'' The Crimes of Burke and Hare'', New Theatre, London, 1931 *''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (a

Tom show Tom show is a general term for any play or musical based (often only loosely) on the 1852 novel ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The novel attempts to depict the harsh reality of slavery. Due to the weak copyright laws at the time, ...

), The Brixton Theatre, 1931

Film and television

Saintsbury's subsequent television work included: *Eric Fawcett's adaptation of

Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

' ''

A Christmas Carol ''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. ''A Christmas C ...

'' (1950) as Mrs Cratchit, along with

Bransby Williams Bransby Williams (born Bransby William Pharez; 14 August 1870 – 3 December 1961) was a British actor, comedian and monologist. He became known as "The Irving of the music halls". Early years Born in Hackney, London, the son of William Me ...

as Scrooge and

John Ruddock John Ruddock (20 May 1897 – 24 September 1981) was a Peruvian-born British film and television actor. John Ruddock was born on 20 May 1897 in Lima, Peru as John Reynolds Ruddock. He was the first of seven children of his British father and Ame ...

as Cratchit *

Leopold Lewis Leopold David Lewis (19 November 1828 – 23 February 1890), was an English dramatist. Lewis was born in London in 1828, the son of Elizabeth and David Leopold Lewis, a surgeon, and was educated at the King's College School, and upon graduat ...

' '' The Bells'' (1950), a translation of Erckmann-Chatrian's play '' Le Juif polonaise'' *Andrew Osborn's adaptation of

Georges Simenon Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (; 13 February 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a Belgian writer. He published nearly 500 novels and numerous short works, and was the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret. Early life and education ...

's novel ''

Maigret's Mistake ''Maigret's Mistake'' (French:''Maigret se trompe'') is a 1953 detective novel by the Belgian writer Georges Simenon featuring his character Jules Maigret Jules Maigret (), or simply Maigret, is a fictional French police detective, a '' com ...

'', '' Maigret: The Mistake'' (1960) *

Alan Bridges Alan Bridges (28 September 1927 – 7 December 2013) was an English film and television director. In 1967 Bridges directed a television adaptation of Charles Dickens' ''Great Expectations'' starring Gary Bond as Pip. He won the ''Grand Pri ...

' adaptation of August Strindberg's play '' The Father'' (1963) for BBC television *Andrew Osborn's adaptation of Georges Simenon's novel '' L’affaire Saint-Fiacre'', '' Maigret: The Countess'' (1962) *The pilot of a sitcom set in 1910 by David Climie and based on a story by

W.W. Jacobs William Wymark Jacobs (8 September 1863 – 1 September 1943) was an English author of short fiction and drama. His best remembered story is "The Monkey's Paw". He was born in Wapping, London, on 8 September 1863, the son of William Gage Jacobs ...

, ''Sam The Samaritan'' (1965), but which was not then commissioned *''The Long House'' (1965) * Jack Bond's ''

Separation Separation may refer to: Films * ''Separation'' (1967 film), a British feature film written by and starring Jane Arden and directed by Jack Bond * ''La Séparation'', 1994 French film * ''A Separation'', 2011 Iranian film * ''Separation'' (20 ...

'' (1968) *

Ben Travers Ben Travers (12 November 188618 December 1980) was an English writer. His output includes more than 20 plays, 30 screenplays, 5 novels, and 3 volumes of memoirs. He is best remembered for his long-running Aldwych farce, series of farces first ...

' '' Rookery Nook'' (1970) along with

Richard Briers Richard David Briers (14 January 1934 – 17 February 2013) was an English actor whose five-decade career encompassed film, radio, stage and television. Briers first came to prominence as George Starling in ''Marriage Lines'' (1961–66), but ...

Arthur Lowe Arthur Lowe (22 September 1915 – 15 April 1982) was an English actor. His acting career spanned 36 years, including starring roles in numerous theatre and television productions. He played Captain Mainwaring in the British sitcom ''Dad' ...

and

Joan Cooper Joan Cooper (23 August 1922 – 1 July 1989) was a British actress. Her second husband was the actor Arthur Lowe whom she met at the Manchester Repertory Theatre in 1946. They were married at the Register Office, Strand, London, in January 19 ...

Saintsbury is best-known for her appearance in an episode of ''

''. Nan Braunton had previously appeared as Cissy Godfrey, one of Private Godfrey's two sisters. Saintsbury appeared in place of Braunton in 1975, in episode 3 of series 8,

Is There Honey Still for Tea? "Is There Honey Still for Tea?" is the third episode of the eighth series of the British sitcom ''Dad's Army'', which was originally transmitted on Friday 19 September 1975. The title is taken from the concluding lines of Rupert Brooke's 1912 po ...

Personal life

Saintsbury died in 1995, aged 95.Hillingdon district registry, district number 2361C, register number C28B, entry number 125. She was unmarried.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saintsbury, Kathleen 1899 births 1995 deaths English television actresses English stage actresses 20th-century English actresses