Winifred Fraser

Fraser was born in City Road, London, the daughter of the Rev Edward Day, vicar of St Mark's church, Shoreditch.

After this she played several supporting roles in West End debut productions, including Rosie in Effie Bancroft's curtain-raiser My Daughter[3] and Lucy Lorimer in Sydney Grundy's A Pair of Spectacles with John Hare.

[2] In she made her first appearance in the US, playing Barbara Pennymint in Pomander Walk, by Louis N. Parker, at Wallack's Theatre, New York, and in the following two years toured the role around the country.

[2] She remained in the US for the duration of the First World War, and, in the words of the ODNB, "by this time in her forties, carved out a niche for herself in New York playing the many middle-aged matrons who populate turn-of-the-century melodramas".

[1] She also appeared in comedy, including nearly a year as Mrs Martha Van Zile in Polly With a Past, by George Middleton and Guy Bolton, at the Belasco Theatre in 1917–18.