George Leitch

He became a stock comedian at Brighton, playing alongside many of the stars of the day — Sims Reeves, Charles Matthews, Barry Sullivan, John Lawrence Toole, Walter Montgomery, Adelaide Neilson, Ada Cavendish, to mention a few.

His first West End appearance was in The Shaughraun at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane as a replacement for Dion Boucicault when the great actor was called away urgently, and F. B. Chatterton, who had only met Leitch briefly, gave him his big chance.

[1] He formed a company to tour Sithors to Grind, and other original plays: The Improvisatore, based on Hans Christian Andersen's autobiographical novel, Uncle Zac, The Coming D - -, Money Down, A Touch of the Sun, Old Times, and Those Girls.

[13] He joined the Nellie Stewart Opera Company in 1890, playing "Petit Pierre", "The Insect" in Farnie's Paul Jones[14] as a foil to G. H. Snazelle's Bouillabaisse, their song Two Mariners Bold being memorable.

[15] He was in New Zealand early in 1895 working on a new play, The Land of the Moa, which opened 24 July 1895 at the Wellington Opera House, and was well received, then toured through Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin before being first staged in Sydney on 19 October at the Theatre Royal.