W. S. Penley

His obituarist in The Times speculated that Penley's career in retail may have been cut short by an irrepressible sense of humour ill-suited to a serious commercial concern.

[2] At the age of twenty Penley made his stage debut in 1871 at the Court Theatre, London as Tim, the porter, in a revival of John Maddison Morton's farce, My Wife's Second Floor.

[1] The following year he played in T. F. Plowman's burlesque Zampa at the Court[4] and performed at the Holborn Theatre in Hervé's operetta Doctor Faust.

[1][5] Among the cast of Zampa was Selina Dolaro, whose company Penley joined under the management of Richard D'Oyly Carte at the Royalty Theatre in London and on tour, in 1875.

[9] Penley gained increasing prominence during 1876 in supporting roles in Offenbach's Geneviève de Brabant,[10] and Madame l'archiduc,[11] and W. S. Gilbert and Frederic Clay's comic opera Princess Toto.

"[16] In March 1880 he appeared at the Gaiety Theatre, London as Matthew Popperton in the extravaganza La voyage en Suisse, with the Hanlon-Lees comic acrobatic troupe.

[19] Continuing to rise to more important parts, Penley made a great success as Brother Pelican in Falka (1883), and in 1884 came what The Times called "his first triumph", as the Rev Robert Spalding in The Private Secretary at the Globe Theatre.

[2] Penley re-joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in 1891, playing Punka, the Rajah of Chutneypore, in The Nautch Girl at the Savoy Theatre, while Rutland Barrington stepped out of the role to tour with Jessie Bond.

[12] On 29 February 1892 Penley produced the farce Charley's Aunt at the Theatre Royal, Bury St. Edmunds, appearing in the role of Lord Fancourt Babberley (who reluctantly impersonates a rich widow from Brazil).

[2] Penley's last new role was as the eccentric Lord Markham, in the comedy A Little Ray of Sunshine, by Mark Ambient and Wilton Heriot, in which he toured from May 1898 and opened at the Royalty in January 1899.

[2] Penley retired, first to Woking, and then to Farnham and finally St Leonards-on-Sea, where he lived what his biographer John Parker calls "a quiet country life".