MADGE KENDAL - CLIPPED SIGNATURE 01/06/1900 CO-SIGNED BY: WILLIAM H. KENDAL, REAR ADMIRAL HENRY BOYLE TOWNSHEND SOMERVILLE - HFSID 2004

WILLIAM H. KENDAL; MADGE KENDAL; ADMIRAL HENRY TOWNSHEND SOMERVILLE
Slip signed by the English acting stars, and on verso by the Rear Admiral
Clipped Signatures: "W. H. Kendal/Jan 6, 1900," "Madge Kendal", and on verso "Rear Admiral & Engineer/in ChiefR. S. N.", 6½x2¾. WILLIAM H. KENDAL, born Grimston (1843-1917) married fellow stage actress MADGE KENDAL (1848-1935) in 1869, and adopted her name as his professional name. Stars of the London stage from the early 1860s, the couple performed everything from vaudeville to Shakespeare, and were featured in the "fairy comedies" of W. S. Gilbert in the 1870s. The Kendal's helped restore the respectability of London theatre, which had fallen into disrepute with the middle class. They made the first of several US tours in 1889. William Kendal, a shrewd businessman, was also an avid art collector. Madge, who outlived her husband by nearly two decades, became a Dame Grand Cross of the British Empire in 1927. HENRY BOYLE TOWNSHEND SOMERVILLE (1863-1936) joined the Royal Navy in 1877 as a hydrographic surveyor. While conducting studies in the South Pacific, he acquired a considerable ethnographic collection. In 1917, Somerville became head of the Naval Section of the Secret Intelligence Service, the first British naval officer assigned to the Service. He was a serious student of archaeoastronomy, studying and writing about Stonehenge and other standing stones and circles found throughout Western Europe. Toned. Irregularly cropped lower edge. Otherwise, fine condition.