Helen Gilliland

Helen Gilliland (31 January 1897 – 24 November 1942) was a Northern Irish actress and singer born in Belfast to John Gilliland, an official at Northern Bank. She received her education at Victoria College in Belfast before continuing her musical training at the Royal College of Music in London.

Gilliland launched her professional career in July 1917 as a principal soprano with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, performing on tour in leading roles across several Gilbert and Sullivan works. These included Aline in The Sorcerer, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, Phyllis in Iolanthe, Yum-Yum in The Mikado, and Casilda in The Gondoliers. After a brief departure from the company in June 1919, she returned that September for an 18-week London season at the Princes Theatre, reprising most of her earlier roles with the exception of Mabel. The season ran through January 1920. From October 1921 to April 1922, she completed a final stint with D'Oyly Carte during another London season, adding Patience in Patience, Elsie Maynard in The Yeomen of the Guard, and Casilda to her repertoire alongside previously performed roles.

Following her departure from D'Oyly Carte in April 1922, Gilliland moved to the London Hippodrome and subsequently appeared at other London theatres in a range of musical comedies and operettas. Her credits from this period include Round in 50 (1922), The Cousin from Nowhere (1923), Katinka (1923), Stop Flirting by Frederick J. Jackson (1923), Lilac Time (1924), Castles in the Air (1927), Princess Charming (1927), and Lady Mary (1928), the last of which was written for her by Frederick Lonsdale.

In 1928, Gilliland toured the United States, appearing on Broadway in The Red Robe by Stanley J. Weyman at the Shubert Theatre in New York City. During her American tour she also performed in productions including Bitter Sweet, Balalaika, and Carl Brisson's revival of The Merry Widow. Upon returning to England, she appeared at Drury Lane in The Song of the Drum in January 1931, followed by Nina Rosa at the Gaiety Theatre in August 1931. Over the following six years she worked in musical comedy, variety, and pantomime, among them another production of Brisson's The Merry Widow. Her agent attempted without success to secure her a role in Oscar Hammerstein's 1938 Broadway musical Knights of Song, a production centered on Gilbert and Sullivan. Her single film appearance came that same year in The Storm (1938).

During the Second World War, Gilliland served as a performer with the Entertainments National Service Association, entertaining British troops. Having completed a tour of India, she was en route to an ENSA engagement in Africa in November 1942 when the ship she was travelling on was torpedoed by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The vessel sank with no survivors. Gilliland was 45 years old at the time of her death.