Squire Bancroft
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Sir Squire Bancroft (May 14, 1841 - April 19, 1926), born Squire White Butterfield, was an English actor and manager.
Bancroft was born in Rotherhithe. His first appearance on the stage was in 1861 at Birmingham, and he played in the provinces with success for several years. His first London appearance was in 1865 in J. P. Wooler's A Winning Hazard at the Prince of Wales's Theatre off Tottenham Court Road. This theatre was managed by Effie Marie Wilton (b. 1840), whom he married in 1868. The pair continued as joint managers of the theatre.
Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft produced and starred in all the Thomas William Robertson comedies beginning in 1865: Society (1865), Ours (1866), Caste (1867), Play (1868), School (1869) and M.P. (1870), and, after Robertson's death, in revivals of the old comedies, for which they surrounded themselves with an admirable company. Other plays they premiered or produced there were W. S. Gilbert's Allow Me To Explain (1867) and his romantic comedy tribute to Robertson, Sweethearts (1874), as well as Tame Cats (1868), Lytton's Money (1872), The School for Scandal (1874), Boucicault's London Assurance (1877), and Diplomacy (1878, an adaptation of Sardou's Dora).
The Bancroft management at the Prince of Wales's Theatre constituted a new era in the development of the English stage and had the effect of reviving the London interest in modern drama. In 1879 the Bancrofts moved to the Haymarket Theatre, where they produced or starred in a revival of Money, and in Sardou's Odette (for which they engaged Madame Helena Modjeska) and Fedora, and Pinero’s Lords and Commons, with revivals of previous successes.
Having made a considerable fortune, they retired in 1885. Bancroft was knighted in 1897. Both he and his wife are buried in Brompton Cemetery.
[edit] Publications
- Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft On and Off the Stage, Written by Themselves (London, 1888)
- The Bancrofts: Recollections of Sixty Years (London, 1909)
