Marjorie Westbury (18 June 1905 – 16 December 1989) was an English radio actress and singer. Her career lasted for more than fifty years. Born in Oldbury, Worcestershire, she studied Voice at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

in London between 1927 and 1930. During the 1930s, she made many radio broadcasts as a

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

from the BBC's studios in Birmingham. By the late 1930s, she had moved into acting as well as singing. This led in 1942 to a small part in

Francis Durbridge Francis Henry Durbridge (; 25 November 1912 – 11 April 1998) was an English dramatist and author, best known for the creation of the character Paul Temple, the gentlemanly detective who appeared in 16 BBC multi-part radio serials from 1 ...

's ''Paul Temple Intervenes''. In 1945, she took on the role of Paul's wife, Steve Temple, and continued to play the part until the radio serials came to an end in 1968. The surviving

Paul Temple Paul Temple is a fictional character created by English writer Francis Durbridge. Temple is a professional author of crime fiction and an amateur private detective. With his wife Louise, affectionately known as 'Steve' in reference to her jo ...

serials have been broadcast on

BBC Radio 4 Extra BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British digital radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a day. It is the sister station of BBC Radio 4 and the p ...

. While "Steve Temple" might have been her longest-lasting role, she was a very frequent radio actress into the 1970s and beyond. During the 1950s, she created the part of the (fictional) Austrian soprano Elsa Strauss in the ''

Hilda Tablet Hilda Tablet is a fictitious "twelve-tone composeress" created by Henry Reed in a series of radio comedy plays for the British Broadcasting Corporation's Third Programme. Hilda is the inventor of '' musique concrète renforcée'' (literally, "r ...

'' series of radio plays by Henry Reed. In 1964, she played the part of the baby in a radio adaptation of

Mervyn Peake Mervyn Laurence Peake (9 July 1911 – 17 November 1968) was an English writer, artist, poet, and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the '' Gormenghast'' books. The four works were part of what Peake conceived ...

's long poem The Rhyme Of The Flying Bomb. In 1983, she chose to celebrate the golden jubilee of her first appearance on radio by appearing as "Helen Lancaster" in

N. C. Hunter Norman Charles Hunter (18 September 1908 – 19 April 1971) was a British playwright whose plays attracted such notable actors to perform them as John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Sybil Thorndike, Ralph Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael Redgrave ...

's play, ''Waters of the Moon''. Westbury's career was mostly on radio with occasional films and theatre work. She died at her farmhouse in

Maresfield Maresfield is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. The village itself lies 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north from Uckfield; the nearby villages of Nutley and Fairwarp; and the smaller settlements of Du ...

, near

Uckfield Uckfield () is a town in the Wealden District of East Sussex in South East England. The town is on the River Uck, one of the tributaries of the River Ouse, on the southern edge of the Weald. Etymology 'Uckfield', first recorded in writing as ...

, Sussex on 16 December 1989, aged 84.

Filmography

* 1964: The Finest Hours (as George Westbury – voice) * 1975: The Girls of Slender Means (voice)

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Westbury, Marjorie 1905 births 1989 deaths Alumni of the Royal College of Music English radio actresses People from Wealden District People from Oldbury, West Midlands 20th-century British actresses 20th-century English singers 20th-century English women singers

Filmography

See also

References