Martha Rowson

Martha Rowson (b. Aston, Warwickshire, 09/04/1899 – d. Cape Town, 20/07/1987) was an actress.

Biography

In September 1905, George Rowson, his wife (the former Althea Powers) and their four children came to South Africa on the Tintagel Castle. They arrived from Aston in Warwickshire and according to the ship’s manifest he had been a station master. They settled in Johannesburg where the three girls attended the Holy Family Convent school in President Street. One of the girls, Marion Alice, known as Martha, was particularly talented and when, at an early age, she took to the stage, she was regularly praised by the local critics.

Her first known known stage appearance was in Saved from the Sea at the Palladium Theatre in December 1913, and the Rand Daily Mail enthused that she was “a clever child actress, who spoke her words with commendable clearness and acted with intelligence”. This was followed by Uncle Ham (1914), A London Actress (1914), At Cripple Creek (1914), No Cross, No Crown (1914), East Lynne (1914), The Octoroon (1914), Her Fatal Past (1914), Proof (1915) and The New Shylock (1915). Finally, as the kidnapped girl in Harriet Ford’s The Dummy (1917) (for the visiting American Dramatic Company) and as the orphaned Sadie Kate in Daddy Long-Legs (1918), both at His Majesty's Theatre.

In addition she appeared in a variety of charity benefits and fundraisers, such as the Unionist Party Club War Relief Fund (1914) and an entertainment for the Ancient Order of Foresters (1918). She and her younger siblings, Margaret and Dora, also performed as juvenile dancers and vocalists as the Rowson Sisters. In between she found time to act in six silent films for African Film Productions: A Zulu’s Devotion (Lorimer Johnston/1916), The Silver Wolf (Lorimer Johnston/1916), The Splendid Waster (Lorimer Johnston/1916), Gloria (Lorimer Johnston/1916), De Voortrekkers (Harold M. Shaw/1916) and The Voice of the Waters (Joseph Albrecht/1918). Margaret and Dora also acted with her in Daddy Long-Legs and their brother Robert (Bobby) had a role in De Voortrekkers (1916).

Marion Alice Hawkes married Richard William Hawkes in December 1917 in Johannesburg, but they were divorced in 1948. And, curiously, remarried in 1952 in Cape Town. At that time he was a general dealer in Diep River and she was a supervisor from Sea Point. It is not known whether she continued acting as an amateur, but in September 1939 the SABC transmitted a radio play entitled The Greater Power by Marion Hawkes from its Cape Town studios. (F.O.)