Jean Aylwin

Jean Aylwin (10 October 1885 – 1964), born Jean Isabella Griffin Aitkin in Hawick, Scotland, was an actress and singer who built her reputation in Edwardian musical comedy before transitioning to dramatic roles and later radio broadcasting. Educated at George Watson's College in Edinburgh, she was frequently billed as "The Lady Harry Lauder."

Aylwin began her professional stage career in 1904 with a touring company performing melodramas, including The Red Coat and No Cross, No Crown, in smaller towns across the British provinces. She subsequently toured in the Edwardian musical comedy The Girl from Kays, managed by George Dance, in the role of a shop assistant. Her next engagement brought her into the chorus at the Gaiety Theatre, where she advanced to understudy work before making her London principal debut at the same venue in 1906, playing Sylvana in the long-running musical comedy The Spring Chicken. That production also featured George Grossmith, Jr., with whom Aylwin would collaborate across several successful musicals over the following four years. Later in 1906, she appeared in the original cast of The New Aladdin as Jennie, a maid. A Daily Mail reviewer noted that she had "a future before her as character actress that can best be described as a particularly bright one." In 1907 she took the role of Minna in the original run of The Girls of Gottenberg, followed by Anita in Havana in 1908, and a further appearance in Our Miss Gibbs in 1909.

When Our Miss Gibbs transferred to the Knickerbocker Theatre in New York in 1910, Aylwin joined the production alongside a predominantly American cast. Her Broadway appearances continued with La Belle Paree and Bow-Sing in 1911.

By 1912 she had returned to England, starring in A Scrape O' the Pen by Graham Moffat at the Comedy Theatre. One reviewer observed that she was "far more at home in the part of Jean Lowther than in a musical comedy role," reflecting her growing range beyond musical theatre. The following year she starred in Who's the Lady at the Garrick Theatre, where critics credited her performance as central to the production's success. In 1913–14 she toured Scotland and northern England in A Careless Lassie, playing the title character in a Scottish-themed show. In 1914 she also received press attention for inspiring a style of dress in crepe and lace.

In 1915 Aylwin starred in All Scotch, described as a "tartan revue," which included a sequence in which she appeared as Bonnie Prince Charlie. The Manchester Courier called it "probably one of the best which has been to Manchester" and noted that Aylwin "sings and dances charmingly." Later that year she supported comedian Dan Rolyat in his revue She's a Daisy at the Manchester Hippodrome and performed in benefit concerts in support of the war effort. All Scotch was revived in February 1916 at Her Majesty's Theatre in Dundee.

In 1918 Aylwin appeared in the silent film The Greatest Wish in the World as the Mother Superior, and starred in a sketch called Something to his Advantage, written for her by Dion Titheradge, at the Euston Theatre and the Coventry Hippodrome. In 1920 she appeared in Just Like a Woman at the Glasgow Empire. She returned to the London stage in 1923 in one of two competing productions of Polly at the Chelsea Theatre, playing a Scottish maid role created specifically for that version of the show. At the close of 1923 she announced her retirement from the stage, stating her intention to travel to India and other parts of the East to work with the Wesleyan Missionary Society in leper settlements. She subsequently returned to England and in 1926 became an early BBC radio broadcaster, presenting a programme of "Scotch Tales and Songs."

On 13 December 1913, Aylwin married Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred Rawlinson, son of the Assyriologist Sir Henry Rawlinson. The marriage ended in divorce in 1924, with composer Hubert Bath named as co-respondent. The case centered on events during her run in Polly, when Rawlinson visited a flat she had asked him to rent for her opposite the theatre and encountered Bath on multiple occasions. The court found for Colonel Rawlinson and granted the divorce.