C. Morton Horne

C. Morton Horne (1885–1916), born Cyril Henry Morton Horne, was an Irish musical comedy performer and writer whose Broadway career spanned the years 1911 to 1913. His birth was registered in the spring of 1885 in the Weston District of Dublin, and his permanent address on record was 16 Palmerston Park, Dublin, Ireland.

Horne's stage career likely began in earnest in early 1910, when he took on the role of Lieutenant Varga in The Balkan Princess at London's Prince of Wales Theatre. Later that same year he traveled to the United States aboard the SS Amerika, launching what would become a four-production run on Broadway.

His first Broadway appearance came in January 1911, when he played The Honorable Richard Mirables opposite Emmy Wehlen in the musical Marriage a la Carte at the Casino Theatre. Later that year, in November, Horne began a run as Captain Graham in the musical Little Boy Blue, performing at the Lyric Theatre and subsequently at the Grand Opera House. In October 1912 he appeared as Billy Brand in The Charity Girl, staged at the Globe Theatre. His final Broadway credit came in the spring of 1913, also at the Globe Theatre, where he portrayed Capt. Etienne de Bouvray in a revival of the musical Mlle. Modiste.

Horne married fellow actor Marie Ashton on 9 April 1911. In January 1915 he sailed for Britain aboard the SS Megantic to join the war effort in Europe. He served as a Captain in the Seventh Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers. During his time at the front, Horne composed a number of songs and poems, many written in the trenches and sent back to his wife. These works were later compiled and published under the title Songs of the Shrapnel Shell, and Other Verse.

Horne was killed in action on 27 January 1916 in France at the age of twenty-nine. He died attempting to rescue a wounded British soldier lying outside the trenches, and was struck by a shrapnel shell overhead in the course of that effort. Marie Ashton was performing the role of "Pleasure" in the play Experience when she received word of his death. She later married actor Ernest Glendinning in 1919, a marriage that lasted until his death.