Lilian Braithwaite

Dame Florence Lilian Braithwaite was born on 9 March 1873 in Ramsgate, Kent, the eldest of seven children of the Reverend John Masterman Braithwaite, a curate who later became vicar of Croydon, and his wife Elizabeth Jane, daughter of Colonel Thomas Sidney Powell. Braithwaite was educated at Croydon High School and grew up in a family with a strong tradition of public service; two of her five brothers, Colonel Francis Powell Braithwaite and Vice-Admiral Lawrence Walter Braithwaite, achieved distinction in the military. Her sister Dorothy Louisa married Philip Maud.

Before turning professional, Braithwaite performed with amateur companies including the Strolling Players and the Oxford University Dramatic Society. Her parents strongly opposed her decision to pursue a professional career, but in 1897, at the age of 24, she joined the William Haviland and Gerald Lawrence Shakespearean company. That same year, on 2 June 1897, she married Lawrence at the church of St Stephen in Kensington, and her first professional appearances came during a tour of South Africa with the company. The couple's daughter, actress Joyce Carey, was born in 1898 following their return to London. Braithwaite and Lawrence divorced in 1905 after he committed adultery and deserted her.

Braithwaite made her first professional London appearance in 1900, playing Celia in As You Like It, and subsequently appeared in Paul Kester's Sweet Nell of Old Drury at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. In 1901 she joined Frank Benson's company for a season of Shakespeare at the Comedy Theatre, then toured with George Alexander and performed under his management at the St James's Theatre from 1901 to 1904. Her London career continued to expand over the following decade: in 1912 she played the Madonna in C. B. Cochran's production of the mystery play The Miracle at Olympia, and in 1913 she appeared as Mrs Gregory in Mr. Wu. In 1921 she took the role of Margaret Fairfield in Clemence Dane's A Bill of Divorcement.

The role that brought Braithwaite her greatest recognition was that of the alcoholic mother in Noël Coward's The Vortex in 1924, a production that transferred to Broadway, where she performed in it during her years on the New York stage between 1925 and 1930. Her Broadway credits also included the play Symphony in Two Flats. Having previously been associated with tragic heroines, Braithwaite went on to demonstrate considerable range as a light comedienne. In 1927 she appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's silent film Downhill, and in 1928 she played a character described as a "ten per cent lady" in Ivor Novello's The Truth Game at the Globe Theatre. A succession of comedies followed, among them Flat to Let, Fresh Fields in 1933, Family Affairs, Full House, The Lady of La Paz, and Bats in the Belfry.

Braithwaite did not abandon serious work during this period. In 1938 she took the title role in Elizabeth, la femme sans homme at the Haymarket Theatre, and in 1940 she played Lady Mountstephan in A House in the Square at St Martin's Theatre. That same year, during the Second World War, she served as chairman and chief organiser of the hospital division of the Entertainments National Service Association. In December 1942 she returned to comedy in Arsenic and Old Lace, a production that ran for three years. In 1943 she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services to the stage. Her last notable screen performance was as Mrs. Armitage in the 1947 film A Man About the House.

Dame Lilian Braithwaite died in London on 17 September 1948, reportedly still expecting to recover from her illness and resume rehearsals for a new production. She was 75.