Elizabeth Nickell-Lean

Elizabeth Gertrude Nickell-Lean (11 May 1908 – 20 January 1986) was a British mezzo-soprano born in Liverpool, one of four children of Philippa Marian née West (1878–1935) and Thomas Nickell-Lean (1869–1923). Her older sister, Marion Marjorie Nickell-Lean (1903–1970), married Sir William Prince-Smith O.B.E. M.C. (1898–1964), 3rd baronet of the Prince-Smith baronets of Hillbrook. Nickell-Lean made her first stage appearance at the age of seven in a Liverpool charity performance in 1915. Her parents declined a reported offer for her to join the Liverpool Repertory Theatre, and she instead pursued formal training in singing and German lieder in Manchester and London, giving concert performances throughout the provinces before embarking on a professional stage career.

She joined the chorus of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in November 1931 and quickly began taking on minor roles, among them Isabel in The Pirates of Penzance, Peep-Bo in The Mikado, Ruth in Ruddigore, and Giulia in The Gondoliers. By August 1932 she had advanced to the slightly larger role of Vittoria in The Gondoliers, and through the 1932–34 seasons she regularly performed Isabel, Peep-Bo, Ruth, and Vittoria. During the absences of leading mezzo-soprano Marjorie Eyre, Nickell-Lean assumed the principal soubrette roles, including Iolanthe in Iolanthe, Melissa in Princess Ida, Pitti-Sing in The Mikado, Mad Margaret in Ruddigore, and Phoebe Meryll in The Yeomen of the Guard.

In August 1934 Nickell-Lean was formally promoted to the title role in Iolanthe and simultaneously took on the small role of Ada in Princess Ida while maintaining her other minor parts. That same year she joined the company's 1934 North American tour, bringing her Broadway appearances in productions including Patience, Iolanthe, and The Gondoliers to audiences in the United States. During the 1935–36 season she ceded the Iolanthe title role back to Eyre and took up the smaller role of Leila in that operetta, while expanding her repertoire to include Lady Saphir in Patience, Kate in Pirates of Penzance, and Sacharissa in Princess Ida, alongside her continuing assignments as Peep-Bo, Ruth, and Vittoria.

Nickell-Lean reclaimed the title role in Iolanthe in August 1936 and participated in the company's 1936 North American tour during what proved to be her final season with D'Oyly Carte. On that tour she performed Kate in Pirates of Penzance, Lady Saphir in Patience, the title role in Iolanthe, Sacharissa in Princess Ida, Peep-Bo in The Mikado, and Vittoria in The Gondoliers. Her Broadway credits from the 1934 to 1936 tours include Patience, Iolanthe, The Gondoliers, Trial by Jury, and The Hot Mikado. She also sang Peep-Bo on the D'Oyly Carte's 1936 recording of The Mikado. After leaving the company in July 1937, she appeared in the 1939 film The Mikado, playing Pitti-Sing under the screen name Elizabeth Paynter.

Nickell-Lean retired from the stage in 1939 following her marriage in London to clinical pathologist Dr. Hugh Francis Brewer (1901–1982) of the Ministry of Health Emergency Hospital Service. Later that year the couple were registered as residing in Luton, Bedfordshire, where her occupation was recorded as "Unpaid domestic duties." She returned to the stage briefly in 1975 when the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company held centenary celebrations performing all 13 extant Gilbert and Sullivan operas. In the final performance of Trial by Jury, the regular company chorus was joined by fourteen former performers, including Nickell-Lean alongside Sylvia Cecil, Elsie Griffin, Ivan Menzies, Leonard Osborn, Philip Potter, and others. In her later years she lived at 9 Barton Street in London, SW1. She died on 20 January 1986 at the age of 77, leaving an estate valued at £462,519.