William Greet

[1] Greet was born on his father's ship, christened at St Peter ad Vincula at the Tower of London, and educated at the Royal Naval School, New Cross.

[7] Greet became a producer and theatre manager in his own right in 1894, as licensee of the Avenue Theatre, starting successfully with the long-running Dandy Dick Whittington by George R. Sims and Ivan Caryll,[8] The Lady Slavey (1894)[9] and a popular comedy by F. C. Burnand, Mrs Ponderbury's Past (later billed as Mrs Ponderbury), directed by and starring Charles Hawtrey.

[10] In 1896, Greet gave up the licence at the Avenue and moved to the Lyric, where he presented the long-running The Sign of the Cross by Wilson Barrett, also producing an American tour of the play.

[11] He followed that success with another, Dandy Dan the Lifeguardsman by Basil Hood and Walter Slaughter, starring Arthur Roberts and W. H.

At the same time, he also leased the Lyric Theatre in London, producing Mice and Men in 1902, The Light that Failed in 1903 and the musical comedies The Medal and the Maid (1903), and The Duchess of Dantzic (1904).