May Holt born Elizabeth May Holt was an English actress, manager and playwright who had a successful career on the stage in England and Australia.”She was claimed with great affection by both the Australian and British press and identified as a peer by her contemporaries and colleagues in both Britain and Australia.”

Early life and acting career

She was born on 14 November 1849 in

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

the youngest daughter of the

actor-manager An actor-manager is a leading actor who sets up their own permanent theatrical company and manages the business, sometimes taking over a theatre to perform select plays in which they usually star. It is a method of theatrical production used co ...

, Clarance Holt and she acted in his company from a very early age. In 1857, at the age of 8, she appeared, with the rest of the family, in the melodrama, ''The Children of the Castle'' by

Edward Fitzball Edward Fitzball (20 March 179327 October 1873) was a popular English playwright, who specialised in melodrama. His real surname was Ball, and he was born at Burwell, Cambridgeshire. Fitzball was educated in Newmarket, was apprenticed to a Nor ...

. May toured with the family throughout Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand and was already receiving top billing in her late teens – playing Ophelia at the age of 18 and starring as Eponine in her father’s adaptation of

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

's ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' ( , ) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original ...

'' entitled ''The Barricade'' a year later. She was noted for her singing and dancing in many newspaper reviews and appeared in the Music Halls as well as the theatre. As an example of this versatility: in 1867 she appeared at the

Theatre Royal, Manchester The Theatre Royal in Manchester, England, opened in 1845. Situated next to the Free Trade Hall, it is the oldest surviving theatre in Manchester. It was commissioned by Mancunian businessman John Knowles who wanted a theatre venue in the city. T ...

and, after the performance of ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

'', starred in the farce ''Easy Shaving'' and sang two popular ballads.

Career as a playwright

In 1880 she married Reginald Fairbairn; she was 30 and he 24. He was the youngest son of Sir

Thomas Fairbairn Sir Thomas Fairbairn, 2nd Baronet (18 January 1823 - 12 August 1891) was an English industrialist and art collector. Fairbairn was born in the Polygon in Ardwick, near the centre of Manchester. He was the third of eight surviving children of Sir ...

, 2nd Baronet of

Ardwick Ardwick is a district of Manchester in North West England, one mile south east of the city centre. The population of the Ardwick Ward at the 2011 census was 19,250. Historically in Lancashire, by the mid-nineteenth century Ardwick had grown from ...

and the grandson of the famous engineer, Sir

William Fairbairn Sir William Fairbairn, 1st Baronet of Ardwick (19 February 1789 – 18 August 1874) was a Scottish civil engineer, structural engineer Structural engineers analyze, design, plan, and research structural components and structural systems ...

. After her marriage she continued to appear on the stage but also became an accomplished playwright. Her plays were produced, with considerable success, in both England and Australia.

Playlist

Her plays include:- * ''Jabez North'' (1881) * ''Sweetheart Goodbye'' (1881) * ''Waiting Consent'' (1881) * ''Men and Women, an entirely new and original drama in seven tableaux'' (1882) * ''False Pride'' (1883) * ''High Art, a new farce'' (1883)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holt, May British stage actresses English Shakespearean actresses English stage actresses 19th-century theatre British women dramatists and playwrights 1849 births Year of death missing Actors from Bury St Edmunds 19th-century English actresses