William Wyatt Dimond

It further added that Dimond had been sent as a boarder to Richmond Grammar School where he received the rudiments of a classical education and where he remained until the age of 15 when it was claimed a commission was purchased for him in the British Army.

[4] In his diary the theatre's prompter William Hopkins wrote of Dimond 'He is very young a Smart Figure good Voice and made a very tolerable first appearance he met with great applause'.

He returned to Bath in October 1774 to play a minor role opposite John Henderson in Richard III at the Old Orchard Street Theatre.

By this time Bath had become perhaps the most fashionable of the rapidly developing British spa towns, attracting many notable visitors and the Orchard Street theatre being too small to accommodate all who wished to see performances it was expanded to double its capacity by its managers.

[6][7][8] Dimond was particularly effective in society comedies such as The Provoked Husband which gave him the opportunity to wear fashionable and extravagant costumes that showed off his graceful body to his audiences.

Just before his retirement from acting the Bristol Journal gave an appreciation of his skills in comic roles but added that his performances in tragedy were too orderly: 'nothing is irregular, nothing is left to chance.

[13] He continued to manage the theatre until 1785 when he was appointed as Comptroller-General of the Post Office,[14][15] and handed control to two existing members of the company, William Keasberry and Dimond.

Opening on 12 October 1805 with a lacklustre performance of Richard III but Dimond was successful in persuading notable actors from London to make the long journey to Bath, including Sarah Siddons in her final tour in 1811, Dorothea Jordan, George Frederick Cooke, Robert William Elliston, Joseph Shepherd Munden, Charles Kemble and John Bannister.