Wallace Brownlow

Wallace Brownlow (1861–1919) was a London-born baritone, actor, and stage performer whose career spanned opera, comic opera, and Broadway productions across Britain, Australia, and the United States. Born in Westminster in 1861, he was one of five children of Charlotte née Burrough and Edward Brownlow, a Sergeant in the Coldstream Guards who later served as Drill Master for the Chelsea Pensioners and Yeoman of the Queen's Bodyguard.

Before reaching the stage, Brownlow led an unusually varied early life. At thirteen, in 1874, he left home as an apprentice aboard a 600-ton brig bound for Adelaide, spending several years at sea including a period on HMS Active off the Zulu Coast. He subsequently attempted vine cultivation in South Africa before enlisting in the Cape Mounted Rifles at seventeen. During the Basuto rebellion of 1880, Brownlow, by then a corporal, was among a detachment of 200 men besieged at Mafeteng by approximately 6,000 Basutos. He sustained a gunshot wound during the siege and was promoted to sergeant. His conduct at Ramabidikives village in February 1881 earned him a commission to lieutenant, and Lieutenant Colonel Edward Brabant cited him by name in dispatches for his courage and intelligence in commanding the scouts. After the war ended in 1881, Brownlow worked briefly as a journalist on an Orange Free State newspaper, then took a position in a London banking house before traveling to Canada and attempting a gold mining expedition to the Lake of the Woods, which failed. By late 1883 he was back in London, where he paid a £5 fee to make his first stage appearance as a comic policeman at the Imperial Theatre in Westminster.

Brownlow joined a D'Oyly Carte Opera Company touring company in 1884, initially assigned to the chorus. On 22 March 1884 he married fellow D'Oyly Carte member Sarah "Siddie" Symons. In 1885 he traveled to the United States with D'Oyly Carte's first American Mikado company, performing in New York City and Boston. A tour of Germany and Austria followed in 1886, during which he took on his first principal role, the Foreman of the Jury in Trial by Jury. He made his Savoy Theatre debut in the chorus of the original 1887 London production of Ruddigore, and that August served as understudy to Richard Temple in the role of Sir Roderick Murgatroyd. He continued in the Savoy chorus through London revivals of H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado.

Brownlow's years with D'Oyly Carte produced several notable role creations. Beginning in February 1888, he originated the part of Harrington Jarramie, a retired upholsterer, in Mrs. Jarramie's Genie, a one-act comic opera by Frank Desprez with music by Alfred Cellier and his brother Francois, which served as a curtain raiser for the Savoy revivals. Later that year he created the role of Sir Richard Cholmondeley, the Lieutenant of the Tower of London, in the premiere of The Yeomen of the Guard at the Savoy Theatre — a coincidence noted at the time given his father's own connection to the Yeomen of the Queen's Bodyguard. From the December 1889 premiere of The Gondoliers through April 1891, he played the role of Luiz. He departed D'Oyly Carte in 1891 to create the role of Prince John in Arthur Sullivan's grand opera Ivanhoe and the Duc de Longueville in La Basoche, both staged at the Royal English Opera House. Through 1893 he appeared in further comic opera productions in London, including the role of William in Blue-Eyed Susan, composed by F. Osmond Carr, at the Prince of Wales's Theatre in 1892. His marriage to Symons deteriorated during this period due to mutual allegations of adultery; he petitioned for divorce in 1893, and she counter-petitioned in 1894.

Brownlow subsequently traveled to Australia to work with J. C. Williamson, appearing in the 1894 production of Ma mie Rosette alongside Nellie Stewart and in an 1895 Sydney revival of H.M.S. Pinafore. In January 1897 he married Rhoda Ruth Janette Hay, with whom he had a daughter, Dorothy Rhoda Brownlow, born that same year. In 1900 he performed in both Sydney and Melbourne in H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, Iolanthe, and The Gondoliers, playing Giuseppe in the latter. That same year he also appeared as The Sultan in Sullivan's The Rose of Persia, as Abercoed in Florodora, in the title role of The Mikado, and in A Trip to Chinatown. In 1902 he was injured by falling through a door and recovered substantial damages in the resulting legal action. He also wrote lyrics for several songs during his Australian years, though his alcoholism contributed to the failure of a hotel management venture.

By 1904 Brownlow had relocated his family to the United States, where he appeared on Broadway in Love's Lottery and Boccaccio between 1904 and 1905. During his time in America he also appeared in silent films. He eventually returned to Australia, but his alcoholism brought his performing career to an end. He died by suicide on 7 September 1919.