Playfair
What was the family name of Lena Ashwell from 1896 to 1908?
Lena Ashwell Lena Margaret Ashwell , Lady Simson ( born Lena Margaret Pocock ; 28 September 1872 – 13 March 1957 ) was a British actress and theatre manager and producer , known as the first to organise large-scale entertainment for troops at the front , which she did during World War I . After the war she created the Lena Ashwell Players . Biography . She was born Lena Margaret Pocock on the Wellesley while anchored in the River Tyne at North Shields , at the time under her fathers command as a home for “boys unconvicted of crime but under suspicion” . Ashwells father was Commander Charles Ashwell Boteler Pocock , Royal Navy ( March 1829–February 1899 ) , a nephew of Nicholas Pocock , and her mother was Sarah Margaret Stevens ( December 1839–May 1887 ) , who died as a result of an accident in Canada . Lena , the second youngest of seven siblings , had two brothers and four sisters . One of her siblings died as a child while the family was in New Zealand . She grew up in Canada , and studied music in both Lausanne and at the Royal Academy of Music in London . Her voice however was insufficient for performance and she took up acting instead , thereafter styling herself as Lena Ashwell . In 1891 , she debuted in The Pharisee , and in 1895 she appeared in King Arthur , by J . Comyns Carr , with Dame Ellen Terry , Genevieve Ward and Sir Henry Irving , all wearing costumes made by Ada Nettleship . She went on to appear in a number of Shakespeare productions , in Quo Vadis ( 1900 ) , and as the lead in Mrs Danes Defence ( 1900 ) and Leah Kleschna ( 1905 ) . In 1906 , Ashwell starred in The Shulamite , a melodrama about a South African woman in an unhappy marriage who falls in love with a visiting Englishman . The show ran for 45 performances at the Savoy Theatre between 12 May and 26 June 1906 . Ashwell took the play to the US , where it ran for just 25 performances at the Lyric Theatre on Broadway . The New York Times critic wrote that Ashwell had been rather badly handicapped on her first visit here by a bad play . Beginning in 1906 , Ashwell took up theatre management , initially at the Savoy Theatre , then in 1907 she established her own theatre known as the Kingsway . In February 1914 , Ashwell was one of the founder members of the new United Suffragists group , led by Frederick and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence , and the Harbens which broke away from the moderate NUWSS and the militant WSPU suffragettes , although it welcomed former members of each , and men as well as women who were seeking womens rights . When the Representation of the People Act 1918 was passed and ( some ) women were given the vote , the group disbanded itself . World War One . During World War I she was an enthusiastic supporter of British war aims . Partly due to the influence of her acquaintance Princess Helena Victoria , and her connections to the YWCA , she was given permission to take a group of entertainers to the Western Front . In 1915 , she began to organise companies of actors , singers and entertainers to travel to France and perform ; by the end of the war there were 25 of them , travelling in small groups around France . Ashwell herself travelled to the front and became involved in fundraising and logistics of the concerts , as she believed in uplifting and therapeutic power of music . She organised all-male concert parties to perform shows near to the front line . In her writings about this experience she emphasised that ordinary soldiers had been enthusiastic about high culture – in particular , Shakespeare plays . She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire ( OBE ) for her efforts in organising such shows . After the war . After the war Ashwell sought funding from the Carnegie Trust and the British Drama League . After some years the trustees allowed her a £500 grant for capital outlay after get good results of a survey of local councils . The aim was to bring theatre to London , but some areas such as Canning Town were thought to be a very likely loss maker . The Drama League agreed to underwrite up to £100 of losses there . By 1923 there was a Friends of the Players with members receiving the Lena Ashley Players Magazine . Ashwell formed the Lena Ashwell Players Ltd in April 1923 . The directors were Ashwell , Esme Church , Marion Fawcett and Cicely Hamilton . The first three of these were to be the companys theatre managers and Fawcett was also the first manager of the new company . The players continued to appear throughout London and of whom Laurence Olivier was later to become a member . In 1924 , she took over the old Bijou Theatre in Bayswater , London and renamed it The Century Theatre . This became the headquarters of The Lena Ashwell Players . It was there that she produced new plays including her own adaptations of Crime and Punishment and Dr . Jekyll and Mr . Hyde . In her last years , she embraced the Moral Re-Armament movement . Her ashes are buried with her husband in Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh . The grave lies in the Victorian north extension on a north-south path north of the main path close to Elsie Maud Inglis . Family . She married actor Arthur Playfair in 1896 . He was an alcoholic , committed adultery , domestic violence and passed on venereal disease . He began divorce proceedings in 1903 following her adultery with Robert Taber , the former husband of actress Julia Marlowe . Playfair and Ashwell finally divorced in 1908 . She married the royal obstetrician Sir Henry John Forbes Simson in 1908 , who had the claim to fame of delivering both the future Queen Elizabeth II and her sister Princess Margaret . She met him through her cousin , Sir Alfred Fripp , surgeon to the King , who recommended Simson to her . Writing . Ashwell wrote four books : - Modern Troubadours ( London , Gyldendal , 1922 ) , which is an account of the work of her Concert parties during the First World War - Reflections from Shakespeare ( London , Hutchinson & Co. , 1926 ) , edited from a series of lectures she gave to raise money for the Lena Ashwell Players - The Stage ( London , Geoffrey Bles , 1929 ) , her thoughts on the state of the theatre and role of the actor - An autobiography , Myself A Player ( London , Michael Joseph , 1936 ) References . - Maggie Barbara Gale and Vivien Gardner , Auto/biography and Identity : Women , Theatre and Performance , Manchester University Press , 2004 ; , pp . 99–124 Lena Ashwell and Auto/biographical negotiations of the Professional Self Further reading . - Holledge , J . ( 1981 ) . Innocent flowers : women in the Edwardian theatre . London : Virago . p . 97–101 . Further information about Ashwells work in entertaining WW1 troops . External links . - Ashwell biodata , with photos