George Sutton Titheradge, Famous Victorian Actor

George Sutton Titheradge (1848 – 1916) is one of the few Titheradges to be famous. He was a famous Victorian actor in the English and Australian theatres. Several of his children followed him on to the stage, with daughter Madge Titheradge and son Dion Titheradge, both becoming famous in the theatrical world.

EARLY LIFE

George Sutton Titheradge was born in Portsea, Hampshire, England on 9 December 1848. He was the eldest of eight children born to George Robert Titheradge and his wife Sarah Isabella Emblim. The name Sutton came from his paternal grandmother Martha Elizabeth Sutton. On the 1861 census George and family were living at 46 St George Square, Portsmouth. George Sutton’s father was an accountant and solicitor. George initially followed his father adopting a law career, but soon abandoned it in favour of the theatre. He made his first appearance on the stage at the Theatre Royal in Portsmouth in December 1865.

Georges Family Trees can be seen at these link
George Sutton’s Ancestors

George Sutton’s Children from his first marriage

George Sutton’s children from his second marriage

MARRIAGE TO ISABELLA MURDOCH

George’s first marriage was to Isabella Maria Murdoch (Bella) whom he married on 27 February 1871 at Hendon, County Durham. Isabella was an actress and, under the name Bella Murdoch, she appeared with George from April to December 1874 in plays at Bristol New Theatre Royal. In later years, after her divorce, Isabella carried on as an actress using the name Bella Titheradge.

George and Isabella had five children:

- George Francis was born 7 December 1871 in Sunderland and died in September Quarter of 1872 in Sunderland.
- Henry Augustus Lionel (called Augustus or Gus) was born on 11 January 1873 in Newcastle. He died in 1893 in Blackheath, New South Wales, Australia, aged 20.
- Kate was born in March Quarter of 1874 in Bradford and died December Quarter of 1874 in Bristol.
- Henriette Louise was born 6 July 1875 in Portsmouth and died in September Quarter 1917. She had 3 sons all with the surname Titheradge.
- Sutton Wallace (called Wallace) was born 7 March 1877 in Leicester. He later emigrated to Australia. Wallace married Helena Moran and they had two children, Waldemar born 1900 and Noel born 1904. He also had three children with Eileen Fanning including Loyal born 1911.

Both Augustus and Wallace went to Australia, where their father had settled with his second wife. We do not know when they emigrated nor how much contact they had with their father in Australia. However, in articles in the press about George there is never any mention of his three surviving children by his first marriage. Dion, from George’s second marriage, is always referred to as the only son.

MARRIAGE TO ALMA SANTON

The marriage of George and Isbella did not last long. Already by the time Wallace was born in March 1877 George was having an affair with another actress, Alma Saegert (Santon). George and Alma’s eldest daughter Lillian was born in December Quarter 1877 in Richmond, London. In late 1878 George toured India with a theatrical company, leaving Bella and children at home. Among the theatrical troop was Alma Saergert and when the company arrived in Australia in April 1879 George, Alma and Lillian are recorded as “Mr and Mrs Titheradge and infant”.

In June 1883 George went briefly to England from Australia and here he was divorced from Isabella for adultery and desertion. Isabella was given custody of the 3 children, then aged 10, 8 and 6. An account of the divorce proceedings can be found at this link by scrolling down to the heading George Sutton Titheradge .

On 4 March 1884 George married Alma Maria Johann Santon daughter of William Saegert, a picture dealer. The marriage took place at Fitzroy Registry Office in Melbourne, Victoria. Alma was born around 1850 and died six years after George on 4^th January 1922 aged 72, in Paddington, England. There is never any mention of her in newspaper articles about George.

GEORGE AND ALMA’S CHILDREN

George and Alma had 8 children all born in Australia, except for Lillian.

- Lillian Theodora was born December 1877 in Richmond England. She married Dr Henry Knowles in 1901 and died 21 May 1937 in Sydney.
- Evelyn Alma was born 1881 and died in 1881 aged 10 months at Emerald Hill, Victoria
- Sylvia was born in 1882 in Emerald Hill, Victoria. She married John Henry A Phillips in 1908 and died 30.12.1934.
- Frances Mary was born 4 March 1883. She married Captain Griffiths in 1910 and died 19.2.1951.
- Evelyn Gordon Neild was born 31.5.1885, Praham, Victoria. She married Frank Cochrane in 1909 and died 12.9.1958
- Margaret Naomi (Madge) was born 2.7.1887.in Melbourne. She married Charles Quartermaine in 1910 and Edgar Park in 1928. She died 14.11.1961 in Fetcham, Surrey. More information about Madge can be found at this link
- Alexandra Nina was born 1888 in Moonee Pond, Victoria. She was unmarried and died in 3.9.1968 in Battle, Sussex.
- Dion George was born in 30.3.1889 in Essendon, Victoria. He married Margaret Bolton in 1909 and Madge Stuart in 1928. He died 16.11.1934 in London. More information about Dion can be found at this link

HIGHLIGHTS OF GEORGE’S STAGE CAREER

1865 George made his first appearance on the stage of the Theatre Royal Portsmouth in December 1865 aged 17. After this he gained acting experience with English companies in the provinces. He joined a touring theatre company which gave him excellent grounding and experience, by compelling him to play many parts, with the bill being changed nightly.

1873 He was the leading man at the Bristol Theatre.

1876 He joined the Chippendale Classical Comedy Company and late in that year he played in Hamlet at the Corinthian Theatre in Calcutta.

1877 On 1 January 1877 he was chosen to announce Queen Victoria as Empress of India at the Calcutta Durbar. More information about this can be found at this link

He made his first appearance on the London stage on 6 October 1877 in “The House of Darnley” at the Royal Court Theatre.

1878 In February he played in a revival of “Lady Clancarty”. In April he played Iago in Othello. Late in 1878 he toured India with a theatre company.

1879 The theatre company then went on to Australia and in May he appeared in False Shame at The Academy of Music.
In June he appeared at Theatre Royal Sydney in Clanarty or Wedded and Wooed.
In November he returned to Melbourne for a season at the Peoples Theatre after playing in Tennyson’s Queen Mary and in December he was in Adelaide.
He was a great favourite in Australia. The Australian critics loved him and found him “so intelligent so refined and so generally mentally cultured that no matter what kind of a part he plays he plays it well”.

1880 He joined Alfred Garner’s The London Comedy Company in Sydney. This began a long season at the Theatre Royal Sydney in March and later he accompanied the company on a tour abroad.

1882 At the end of November George left Sydney to tour the United States of America.

1883 In October he scored great success as Wilfred Denver in The Silver King. He was engaged by JC Williamson and Arthur Garner to return to Australia.

1885 He appeared with Dion Boucicault Comedy Company in their Irish plays.

1887 In November 1887 he joined the company of Robert Brough and Dion Boucicault. This company was described as “the finest comedy organisation seen in Australia.” George became their chief attraction in a succession of 140 parts extending over ten years. He created the role of Aubry Tanqueray in The Second Mrs Tanqueray. Other successes included Colonel Lukyn in “The Magistrate”, Abbe Dubois in “A Village Priest”, Lord Illingworth in Oscar Wilde’s “Woman of No Importance”, Partridge in “Sophia”, Charles Surface in “The School for Scandal” and Bendick in “Much Ado about Nothing”.

1899 Fifty year old George returned to the London stage on 7 February 1899 at The Haymarket in “Grierson’s Way”. For the next eight years he had successful runs interspersed with American tours supporting Mrs Patrick Campbell, Marie Tempest and Margaret Anglin among others. He toured America again in 1902, 903 and 1905.

1908 In May 1908 he returned to Australia to act with Margaret Anglin. Their repertoire included The Thief and Twelfth Night in which he played Malvolio. George’s son Dion was also in the company in 1908. George appeared in a number of plays in 1908 and 1909. Thereafter, he made only occasional appearances and settled down with his family in Australia.

1910 – 1915 The family settled in Sydney in 1910. His occasional appearance after 1910 included season of revivals with Florence Brough in 1912 and in A Fair High in 1913 with his daughter Madge. His last appearance on the stage was as Shylock to the aged Ellen Terry’s Portia at her benefit in July 1914. In 1915 JC Williamson Ltd tendered matinees to him as a public tribute.

George’s last public appearance in Sydney was on Australia Day 1915, during World War 1, when he recited “Australia Calls” a poem by an Australian writer.

MORE ABOUT GEORGE

George Titheradge was a gifted and popular actor, and a man of charming personality. He was a gentleman on and off the stage. Of George it has been written
“He never played a part that he did not adore. He was the most natural actor on the English-speaking stage, a fine presence, a beautiful voice full of music sonorous and ringing and capable of the deepest expression of emotion. To mention his name to old playgoers in Australia is to call forth instantly the remark the finest actor I ever saw”.

The Australian critics found him
“so intelligent so refined and so generally mentally cultured that no matter what kind of a part he plays he plays it well.”

He was president of the Actors Association of Australia at the time of his death. George was a lover of shooting, fishing and playing cricket in his youth. He was an enthusiastic gardener and was noted as a grower of daffodils. He was a recognised authority on daffodils acting as a judge at daffodil shows in England and Australia. He imported bulbs from Holland and first introduced the daffodil to Victoria for which he was made a fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society of Great Britain, an honour of which he was more proud of than all his stage triumphs. When he moved to Sydney he settled upon a rocky waste at Vaucluse but he soon had it blossoming.

DEATH

George Sutton Titheradge (b1848 d1916)

George died of cancer in Sydney, Australia on 22 January 1916. He was buried at South Head Coe Cemetery on 24 January 1916. His estate was left to his wife and six daughters and son. The estate was valued at probate as £1623.

In Canberra there is a road called “Titheradge Place” home of some of the foreign embassies. Presumably this road is named after George.

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