Harry B. Waring

(b. Lille, France, **/**/1884? - d. 11/11/1923). Actor, theatrical manager. When Harry B. Waring (always credited as H.B. Waring) was interviewed in 1916, he told Stage & Cinema that he was 26 and that he was born in Lille, which would mean that he was born round about 1890. He said that he had been educated at Charterhouse and had worked with a number of provincial repertory companies, eventually making it to the West End, where he featured in small roles in The Winter's Tale and Twelfth Night staged by Harley Granville Barker at the Savoy Theatre in London.

He first came to South Africa in 1913 with Milestones (presumably the play by Arnold Bennett and Edward Knoblock, which had been written the year before) and again with a J.C. Williamson theatrical company headed by Stephen E. Scanlan and Madge Fabian in May 1914. However, when in March 1916 the company moved on to Australia, Waring stayed behind. During this time he acted in five short films for African Film Productions, namely A Story of the Rand (Lorimer Johnston/1916), An Artist's Inspiration (Harold M. Shaw), A Kract Affair (B.F. Clinton), The Water Cure (B.F. Clinton/1916) and The Major's Dilemma (Dick Cruikshanks/1917). To the latter he also contributed the story.

In 1919 he was in Singapore with the Howitt-Phillips Company and the following year The New York Clipper reports that he was recruiting actors for a repertory company to tour the Far East, including India, China, Japan, the Philippines and Malaya. The H.B. Waring Repertory Company left for India in April 1920 with a repertoire of twenty plays and in March 1921 The Straits Times reported that the troupe was about to open at the Victoria Theatre in Singapore in a series of performances. Then, according to Variety of 1 July 1921, the company was stranded in Java without the means to return home (something denied by the London representative). In 1922 Waring himself was still in India and appeared in Laila Majnu, a silent Indian film directed by J.J. Madan. Also in the film was Jeannette Sherwin, who was a member of his touring company and who probably was with the J.C. Williamson company in South Africa. Waring was killed in a motor accident in Leamington, near Coventry. (FO)

(Note: There is a record of an H.B. Waring coming to South Africa on board the Grantully Castle in 1913 when he was 25, in which case he was born in 1888. An H. Waring came to South Africa on board the Braemar Castle in 1914 when he was 24, in which case he was born in in 1890, as per his interview.  Finally, a genealogical website states that he was 39 when he died in 1923, in which case he was born in 1884)

Return to
Return to ESAT Personalities W

Return to South African Personalities

Return to The ESAT Entries

Return to Main Page