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Gwen Lally

Gwen Lally OBE (born Gwendolin Rosalie Lally Tollandal Speck, 1 March 1882 – 14 April 1963) was an English pageant master, actor, theatre producer, playwright and lecturer. Lally regularly defied gender conventions and often chose to wear 'masculine' clothing that was typical of the era, such as trousers and a top hat. As the first woman pageant maker she produced many historical pageants for smaller towns and organisations as well as major city pageants which involved casts of thousands.

Gwen Lally
Gwen Lally
Born(1882-03-01)March 1, 1882
Fulham, London
DiedApril 14, 1963(1963-04-14) (aged 81)
Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Occupation(s)Actor and pageant master

Early life

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Lally was born at 20 Perham Road, Fulham, London, to 'gentleman' Jocelyn Henry Speck and Rosalie Hughes Dalrymple. She was the eldest of three children.[1] As a child she had a passion for Shakespeare and acting, and became an actress despite parental opposition.[2]

She  grew up on the Oxfordshire/Warwickshire border where her father, who had taken holy orders, was curate at Banbury (1887-1890) and vicar of Wroxton (1892-1907).[3] There, she frequently contributed to church and village entertainments. In 1901, she performed as Olivia in Twelfth Night along with Frank Stevens (later pageant master Frank Lascelles) at a fete in Banbury in aid of Banbury National Schools.[3]

Career

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In 1906, Lally began her career at His Majesty’s Theatre, London, under the management of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. She also worked in touring theatre and music halls, and at the Old Vic.[2] Lally only ever appeared on stage as a female once, in Dinner Together in 1914, and even then her character was a ‘male impersonator'.[4] She claimed "the distinction of being the only actress who has never worn skirts on the stage".[5] However, in 1907 she appeared in the Oxford Historical Pageant in the role of Queen Eleanor.[6]

As a director and producer she worked at repertory theatres in Leeds, where she had her own repertory company at the Little Theatre, and Westcliff on Sea.[7][2] She encouraged town and village drama movements, lecturing on drama and critiquing student productions at Village Drama Society schools.[8][9] In 1926 she directed the Village Drama Society's summer school in Bath and in York in 1927.[8][10] She was also an adjudicator at the Yorkshire Women's Institute Drama Competitions.[8] In 1924 she produced a performance of Shakespeare's Henry VIII with an all woman cast of about 100 members of the Westerham, Brasted and Crookham Hill Women's Institutes in Kent.[11]

Lally wrote two plays, acting in both of them: Pierrot Philanders (1917) and The Great Moment (1918).[12][13]

Lally is best known as a pageant maker, and the first woman to succeed in this work.[7] Other well known pageant masters were Louis N. Parker and Frank Lascelles. The pageant master was responsible for the production and coordination of casts of performers and musicians who were often volunteers. Lally produced many pageants including:

  • Pageant of Poole, Dorset (1952): involved 1500 performers[14][15]
  • Pageant of Dudley (1951)[16]
  • Malvern Pageant, Worcestershire (1951)[17]
  • Pageant of Birmingham: the centenary of the granting of the City of Birmingham's Charter of Incorporation in which 8000 people took part (1938)[18]
  • Pageant of England, Langley Park, Bucks. (1935)[19]
  • Runnymede Pageant (1934)[20]
  • Battle Abbey Pageant, Sussex (1932)[21]
  • Tewkesbury Pageant (1931)[22][23]
  • The Spirit of Warwickshire, Warwick Castle (1930)[24]
  • Pageant of Ashdown Forest, Kent (1929)[25]
  • Westcroft Park, Woking, Surrey (1928)
  • Women's Institute village pageant, Rillington, near Malton, North Yorkshire (1927)[8]
  • Shere Pageant, Surrey (1925)[26]
  • Pageant of Kent, Lullingstone Castle, Kent (1924)[11]

Gwen Lally was known for "her powerful personality and striking figure".[7] In her opinion, pageant making brought together people of all classes and types and promoted friendships between enemies.[2] As a pioneer in the field of pageant making she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1954 New Year Honours. She died on 14 April 1963 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.[27]

References

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  1. ^ "Lally, Gwen [real name Gwendolin Rosalie Lally Tollandal Speck] (1882–1963), pageant master and theatre producer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/59378. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 10 October 2019. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ a b c d "The Power Behind the Battle Pageant. Magnetic Personality of Miss Gwen Lally. England's Only Woman Pageant Producer". Eastbourne Gazette. 24 February 1932. p. 17.
  3. ^ a b Reid, Ellie (2022). "Performing the past: the pageant makers of Banburyshire" (PDF). Cake and Cockhorse. 24: 29–39 – via Banbury Historical Society.
  4. ^ "Gwen Lally, Pageant Master". English Heritage. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  5. ^ "Woman Pageant "Master" A Full-Time Career". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 23 October 1934. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  6. ^ "Pageanteers in the Archives 1: Gwen Lally: a Pageant Master in the making. | Historical Pageants". historicalpageants.ac.uk. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  7. ^ a b c "Miss Gwen Lally. Pageant Master and Play Producer". The Times (London). 17 April 1963. p. 13.
  8. ^ a b c d "Village Drama. Summer School opened near York". The Times (London). 10 August 1927. p. 13.
  9. ^ "Village Drama Society at Bath. Work of the Summer School". The Times (London). 7 September 1926. p. 10.
  10. ^ "Drama For The Villages". The Times (London). 26 August 1926. p. 13.
  11. ^ a b ""Henry VIII" Played by Women. Performance at Westerham". The Times (London). 16 June 1924. p. 18.
  12. ^ "The Strand". The Stage. 31 May 1917. p. 14.
  13. ^ "In Stageland". Globe. 27 May 1918. p. 4.
  14. ^ "Miss Gwen Lally. Successful Pageant at Poole". The Tewkesbury Register and Agricultural Gazette. 23 August 1952. p. 1.
  15. ^ "Poole Pageant. History Dramatised". The Stage. 7 August 1952. p. 10.
  16. ^ "History Unfolds in £5000 Pageant". Staffordshire Advertiser. 15 June 1951. p. 5.
  17. ^ "Miss Gwen Lally. Pageants at Malvern and Dudley". The Tewkesbury Register and Agricultural Gazette. 27 January 1951. p. 1.
  18. ^ "Birmingham's Own Story. Centenary Pageant Splendours". The Times (London). 13 July 1938. p. 9.
  19. ^ "Pageant of England". The Times (London). 27 May 1935. p. 12.
  20. ^ "Runnymede Pageant". The Times (London). 11 June 1934. p. 10.
  21. ^ "Battle Abbey Pageant. Sussex History". The Times (London). 5 July 1932. p. 16.
  22. ^ "The Rich Past of Tewkesbury. Pageantry of Church and State". The Times (London). 15 July 1931. p. 17.
  23. ^ "Link with Tewkesbury Pageant Severed". The Tewkesbury Register and Gazette. 19 April 1963. p. 1.
  24. ^ "Pageant at Warwick Castle. Scenes from English History". The Times (London). 17 July 1930. p. 12.
  25. ^ "Ashdown Forest Pageant. A Spectacle of the Centuries". The Times (London). 16 July 1929. p. 18.
  26. ^ "A Pageant at Shere. Episodes of a Thousand Years". The Times (London). 10 June 1925. p. 12.
  27. ^ "Obituary. Gwen Lally". The Stage. 18 April 1963. p. 13.

Further reading

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  • Angela Bartie, Linda Fleming, Mark Freeman, Tom Hulme, Alexander Hutton & Paul Readman (2019) "‘History taught in the pageant way’: education and historical performance in twentieth-century Britain." History of Education. 48:2, 156-179, doi:10.1080/0046760X.2018.1516811
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