Cyril Biddulph

Cyril Biddulph (28 January 1887 – 26 August 1918) was a Canadian stage actor born at Curragh Camp, a British military base in County Kildare, Ireland. He performed frequently in the United States and appeared on Broadway between 1911 and 1914.

The 1901 United Kingdom census recorded Biddulph as a steward aboard the British vessel Langton Grange, which was docked at the West India Docks in London at the time. He subsequently relocated to New York City and established himself as an actor, taking on engagements across the United States in the early 1910s. His stage work during this period included productions at Broadway venues as well as the National Theatre in Washington, D.C., where he appeared in The Dollar Princess in March 1911.

Biddulph's Broadway credits included three productions. He appeared in Uncle Sam at the Liberty Theatre and Gaiety Theatre in New York from October through December 1911, followed by The Great Adventure at the Booth Theatre in October and November 1913. His final Broadway appearance came in October 1914, when he performed in Evidence at the Lyric Theatre in New York City. That fall engagement marked his last stage appearance in the United States, coming in the months following the outbreak of the First World War.

Biddulph returned to Canada and enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 7 December 1915, initially assigned to the 5th University Company. On 16 September 1916 he joined Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, a regiment based out of eastern Ontario, serving as a private before being commissioned as a lieutenant on 29 December 1916. He was killed on 26 August 1918 while leading his battalion into action in Pas-de-Calais, near the communes of Vis-en-Artois and Haucourt. Canadian forces took both communes the following day. Biddulph was buried in the Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery, Haucourt, in plot VI. A. 12.

Biddulph was married to Broadway actress Cissie Sewell. In 1920, when a fire broke out at the Boston hotel where Sewell was staying, she delayed her evacuation to rescue a photograph of her late husband, leaving behind jewelry, clothing, and bonds. Ellis Island immigration records indicate that Sewell remained an unmarried widow through at least 1923.