Maud Hobson

Maud Hobson, born Jane Elizabeth Manson on 13 November 1860 in Toorak, near Melbourne, Australia, was an Australian-born English actress who built her career across Victorian burlesque, Edwardian musical comedy, and the Broadway stage. Her parents, John Manson and Eliza née Hollingshead, had each emigrated separately from England to Melbourne in 1853, and the family returned to England when Hobson was just three months old.

Hobson's stage career began in 1880 at the Gaiety Theatre in London, where her uncle, John Hollingshead, was then serving as manager. It was Hollingshead who suggested the stage name she would use throughout her professional life. After marrying Lieutenant Andrew Burrell Hayley of the 11th Hussars in 1881, she relocated to Honolulu, where her husband served as Chief Minister to King Kalakaua of Hawaii. Their son, William Burrell Hayley, was born there in early 1882. During her time in Hawaii, Hobson performed occasionally. In 1887, Hayley petitioned for divorce, alleging that Hobson had repeatedly committed adultery with Captain Owen Richard Armstrong. Both Hobson and Armstrong denied the charges, but a divorce was granted in 1888.

Hobson returned to England in 1886 and did not appear on stage again until 1889, when she resumed performing in London under George Edwardes, who had by then taken over as manager of the Gaiety Theatre. She took parts in the Victorian burlesques Faust up to Date and Carmen up to Data. In 1893, she played Alma Somerset in the Edwardian musical comedy A Gaiety Girl, produced at the Prince of Wales Theatre, and returned to the Gaiety in 1894 and 1896. She also toured the United States extensively, appearing in A Gaiety Girl at Daly's Theatre in New York and in productions in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Milwaukee, and San Francisco. By the age of 30, Hobson had lived in Hawaii, Colorado, and London, and had visited Australia on two occasions. She later resided with her uncle Hollingshead and his family in Kensington, London.

In 1900, Hobson appeared as Lady Punchestown in the musical The Messenger Boy at the Gaiety Theatre. Her Broadway career spanned 1902 to 1903, during which she appeared in the musical Three Little Maids and in The Night of the Party.

Hobson died on 7 January 1913 in London and is buried in the family grave at St. John the Evangelist in Sidcup.