Wallace Brownlow

Brownlow's adventures as a youth included an apprenticeship at sea, service with the Cape Mounted Rifles in South Africa, brief stints as a journalist, a banker and a gold miner, before being attracted to the stage.

He left the company to create the roles of Prince John in Arthur Sullivan's grand opera Ivanhoe and the Duc de Longueville in La Basoche (both in 1891).

He next played in a number of comic operas in London through 1893, the year that he petitioned for divorce from his first wife, another member of the D'Oyly Carte.

In 1900 he appeared in more Gilbert and Sullivan roles in Australia, and as The Sultan in The Rose of Persia, Abercoed in Florodora, and in A Trip to Chinatown.

[3] In an 1894 interview for the magazine Table Talk in Melbourne, Australia, Brownlow said that in 1874, aged 13, he left home as an apprentice on a 600 ton brig on a journey to Adelaide, remaining at sea until 1877 including a period aboard HMS Active off the Zulu Coast.

Lieutenant Colonel Edward Brabant wrote in his dispatch: I wish particularly to bring to notice the name of Sergeant Wallace Brownlow, Cape Mounted Rifles who commanded the scouts, and by whose courage and intelligence in keeping me thoroughly informed of the movements of the enemy up to the moment of the charge I was enabled to place the men in the position most favourable to receive the enemy's attack.

A month's trial convinced him to leave banking, and he went to Canada to visit his brother in Montreal before starting on a gold mining expedition to the Lake of the Woods, but the venture failed.

By late 1883 Brownlow was back in London where he saw an advertisement offering to launch amateur performers who wished to turn professional, on payment of a £5 fee.

He next played in a number of comic operas in London through 1893, including the role of William in Blue-Eyed Susan, composed by F. Osmond Carr, at the Prince of Wales's Theatre in 1892.

[9][10] Brownlow then travelled to Australia to work for J. C. Williamson, appearing in the 1894 production of Ma mie Rosette, with Nellie Stewart[11] and in an 1895 revival of H.M.S.

Also in 1900 he played The Sultan in Arthur Sullivan's The Rose of Persia; Abercoed in Florodora;[12] the title role in The Mikado;[7] and appeared in A Trip to Chinatown.

Stewart wrote in her memoirs of Brownlow's great success with Australian audiences, the "ease and grace and dash" that he brought to his roles, his huge popularity with the women who pursued him, and of his weakness for alcohol that led to his unhappy end.

[17] While living in Australia, Brownlow wrote the lyrics for several songs, including those to the ballad "Without Thy Love", the music to which was written by fellow D'Oyly Carte artiste Charles Kenningham.

[19] Later, theatrical manager Hugh D. McIntosh found Brownlow in California, where he had gone to act in silent films, including the 1913 movie The Hoyden's Awakening,[20] now living in dereliction, and brought him back to Australia under contract, but he soon "lapsed into his old habit".