Evelyn Gardiner

Evelyn Gardiner, born Enid Mary Griffin on 12 March 1894 in Shepherd's Bush, West London, was an English opera singer and actress who built her career primarily as a principal contralto in Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas. The daughter of Jane and Charles George Griffin, a manager at Liberty's department store in London, she received her education in London and Paris. Gardiner died suddenly on 13 June 1970 in Honolulu, Hawaii, at the age of 76.

Gardiner entered the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1921, beginning in the chorus before quickly advancing to serve as understudy to principal contralto Bertha Lewis. Her first principal role with the company came in 1923, when she was cast as Inez in The Gondoliers; during the following season she also stepped in as the Duchess of Plaza-Toro in that same opera. She departed the company in 1925 and subsequently worked in films, pantomime, variety, and stage plays, including appearances at the Regent Theatre in London between 1928 and 1931.

In 1931, Gardiner joined the J. C. Williamson Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, performing with them across Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa over three seasons and again in 1935. Her roles with Williamson included the Duchess of Plaza-Toro in The Gondoliers, Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance, and Dame Carruthers in The Yeomen of the Guard. During a brief interlude in 1934, she played the Slave of the Lamp in a pantomime production of Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp at the Prince Edward Theatre in London. While touring Australia in 1933, Gardiner earned a pilot's licence and claimed to be only the second actress in the British Empire to have done so.

Gardiner rejoined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1936 for their American tour, which brought her to Broadway, where she performed from 1936 to 1939. Her Broadway credits included Trial by Jury, The Hot Mikado, Iolanthe, H.M.S. Pinafore, and The Gondoliers. Across the full run of the D'Oyly Carte American tour she performed the contralto roles in all of the company's productions, among them Lady Sangazure in The Sorcerer, Little Buttercup in H.M.S. Pinafore, Ruth in Pirates, Lady Jane in Patience, the Fairy Queen in Iolanthe, Lady Blanche in Princess Ida, Katisha in The Mikado, Dame Hannah in Ruddigore, Dame Carruthers in Yeomen, and the Duchess in The Gondoliers.

Gardiner returned to Australia in 1939 and continued performing Gilbert and Sullivan operas with the Williamson company until 1951. In 1940 she married Lieutenant Colonel Richard L. York, DSO. During the Second World War she was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire for her work raising support in Australia for relief efforts including Bundles for Britain. Outside the theatre, her interests included horseback riding, hunting, fishing, drawing, and interior decoration. Gardiner retired from performing in 1960 but remained connected to Gilbert and Sullivan by directing productions for amateur organizations such as the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Sydney.