A.O. Glisson

(b. Bath, Somerset **/**/1861 – d. **/**/****). Soldier, actor. Alfred Osbourn (later Osborne) Glisson was born in Bath in the county of Somerset and in the Census of 1881 he is listed as a tripe dresser (his father was a pork butcher). It is not known when he came to South Africa, but when his daughter was baptized in Johannesburg in 1895 his occupation was given as canteen keeper. He took part in the Anglo-Boer War and at various stages he was a member of the Kimberley Volunteer Regiment, the colonial volunteer unit known as Roberts’ Horse and the Corps of Cattle Rangers for Protection and Conduct of Captured Stock (June-December 1901), which presumably means that he handled the confiscated livestock of the Boer farms. He does not seem to have been a professional actor, but he appeared in at least four silent films: A Story of the Rand (Lorimer Johnston/1916), De Voortrekkers (Harold M. Shaw/1916), The Voice of the Waters (Joseph Albrecht/1918) and Allan Quatermain (H. Lisle Lucoque/1919). He married Clara Dey at St. Mary’s in Johannesburg in October 1892 and she predeceased him in 1919. When, in 1916, Joseph Albrecht’s oldest daughter was baptised, Clara Glisson was one of the sponsors.(FO)

Sources

Le Roux, André I. & Fourie, Lilla – Filmverlede: geskiedenis van die Suid-Afrikaanse speelfilm

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