Violet Melnotte

She was the wife of Gilbert and Sullivan performer Frank Wyatt, whom she met when they both appeared in the hit operetta Erminie.

Melnotte performed in comic opera and pantomime in London and the British provinces for eight years before venturing into theatre management in 1885.

In early 1877 Melnotte appeared as a Tittlebat-fisher in Richard D'Oyly Carte's operetta Happy Hampstead at the Royalty Theatre.

In 1934, aged 79, she was briefly engaged to the 31-year-old Archibald Patrick Moore, the general manager at the Duke of York's Theatre.

[5] There was such a public outcry over the difference in their ages she considered adopting him instead so that he could inherit the theatre on her death, all her children having predeceased her.