Eleanor Souray
Eleanor "Nellie" Souray (1880 – 8 December 1931), later styled as Eleanor Byng, Viscountess Torrington, was an English actress known for her roles in Edwardian musical comedies, pantomime and light opera.
Early life
[edit]Souray was born Ellen Mary Souray (or Sowray) at Long Ditton,[1] one of eight children of Edwin Souray and Mary Ann (or Marion) Husted Souray. Her sister Maidie Souray was also an actress.[2]
Career
[edit]Souray was a comic actress and singer, preferring the range of shows "from pantomime to light comedy".[3] She appeared in The Black Tulip (1898), The Girl from Kays (1902), The Duchess of Dantzic (1903), The Blue Moon (1905), The Merveilleuses (1906), The Admirable Crichton, and Letty.[4][5] She was also associated with the Gaiety Theatre.[6]
She wrote Over the Garden Wall: A Story of Racing and Romance, published in 1924.[7]
Personal life
[edit]In 1910, Souray married George Master Byng, the 9th Viscount Torrington, at the British Embassy in Paris; they met three days earlier, through their mutual interest in horse racing.[8][9] They were married about four years when the viscount was commissioned to serve in the Royal Navy during World War I. They separated after the war; he declared bankruptcy in 1919, and they were divorced in 1921. She was later romantically linked with jockey and trainer Steve Donoghue.[10]
Souray became more involved with horse racing in her later years, an expensive hobby, which led to her own bankruptcy in 1930.[11] She died by suicide in 1931, in London, at the age of 51.[6]
References
[edit]- ^ Bampton Hunt, John Parker, The Green Room Book (T. S. Clark 1907), p. 403.
- ^ Photograph of Maidie Souray, Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News (February 8, 1908), p. 923.
- ^ "Plays and Players", Navy & Army Illustrated (September 24, 1904), p. 835.
- ^ Hayter-Menzies, Grant. Mrs. Ziegfeld: The Public and Private Lives of Billie Burke (McFarland 2016), p. 207. ISBN 9780786453085
- ^ Felix, Hugo, Victorien Sardou and Adrian Ross. The Merveilleuses: A New Comedy Opera, Chappell (1906), p. iii.
- ^ a b "How Lady Torrington's Craze for Horses Brought Her to a Tragic Finish", Ogden Standard-Examiner (January 17, 1932), p. 24. via Newspapers.com
- ^ Byng, Eleanor Souray, Viscountess Torrington. Over the Garden Wall: A Story of Racing and Romance (Hutchinson & Co., 1924).
- ^ "Torrington Marriage" The Daily News (December 6, 1910): 1. via Trove
- ^ "Actress Wins Title By Winning a Race" Inter Ocean (October 16, 1910): 14. via Newspapers.com
- ^ Atkinson, Diane. Elsie and Mairi Go to War: Two Extraordinary Women on the Western Front (Pegasus Books 2011). ISBN 9781681770161
- ^ "Former Wife of Peer a Suicide by Gas" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (January 3, 1932): 18. via Newspapers.com
External links
[edit]- Ten photographs of Eleanor Souray Byng by Bassano Ltd in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.