May Morton

Little is known about her early childhood but she had a talent for the arts, winning a literature prize for a short story at the age of 10 which was published in The Gentlewoman on 8 July 1905.

She also won the Associates’ Prize for her Essay on “A Notable Woman of the Day” on Queen Alexandra, wife of King Edward VII.

Her first published review, dated 18 August 1913, was of her role as Mariette in "The Girl in the Taxi" at the Grand Opera House in Buxton.

In 1914, "The Girl in the Taxi" went on tour to: Crewe, Chester, Southport, Wigan, Preston, Rochdale, Barnsley, Dewsbury, Birkenhead, Ashton-under-Lyme, Stockport, Walford[clarification needed], Bedford and Woolwich before beginning a six month run at the Lyric Theatre, London.

At the end of January 1915, May Morton went straight into rehearsals for the role of Mascha in the comic opera, "The Chocolate Soldier" which was performed at Middlesbrough, Sheffield, Huddersfield, Dalston, Salisbury, Bristol, Cardiff, Manchester, Liverpool and Leamington.

It played in Liverpool for seven weeks, followed by Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Cardiff, Folkestone, Manchester again, Sheffield, Hanley, Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow (again), Plymouth, Southsea, Folkestone, Sunderland, West Hartlepool, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Dundee, Blackpool, continuing without a break in January 1917 across the country.

In spite of saying that she would give up work on her marriage, May Morton did return to the stage in 1937 playing “the chattering busybody friend of Mrs Blake” in Marie Oxenford’s comedy “The Worm that Turned”, which premiered at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill (Brighton Evening Argus 1 December 1937).

Martin Stanley served as an Allied fighter pilot during World War II; he was shot down and killed over Njimegen around 23 October 1944.