George R. Montford

(b. Bournemouth, Hampshire (today Dorset), **/**/1877 – d. Natal, **/**/1940). British-born actor, producer. Born George Robert Hogarth Mugford, the son of a tavern owner, he used the stage name of George R. Montford. As early as 1897 there is a record of him appearing in a play at the Theatre Royal in Hartlepool and in the 1901 British Census he was described as a “touring actor”. In 1905 he appeared in Between Two Women at the Grand Theatre in Southampton and in December of the following year he joined a touring company on its way to Australia and New Zealand, acting in plays such as Home, Sweet Home and Human Hearts. By 1909 he was back in Great Britain and in 1912-14 he toured the counties with a repertory company, appearing in Kismet: an Arabian Night, Brought to Book and Love and the Law.

In May 1914 he came out to South Africa as a member of the J.C. Williamson company that brought out Madge Fabian and Stephen Ewart. When, in March 1916, Fabian sailed for Australia, he stayed behind and joined the newly established American Dramatic Company. Though he took occasional roles, he acted primarily as its resident producer, based at His Majesty’s Theatre in Johannesburg. During 1917-1919 his productions included Kick In, The House of Glass, The Dummy, The Misleading Lady, General Post, Daddy Long-Legs, Turn to the Right, The Cinderella Man, Nothing But the Truth, Mrs Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, The Thirteenth Chair, The Silent Witness, Sunday, Romance, Seven Days’ Leave, Within the Law, The Little Brother, Madame X and The Yellow Ticket. In February 1918 he had married Naomi Rutherford, a fellow member of the company and it was during this time that he acted in his only film With Edged Tools (1919), directed by Joseph Albrecht. Shortly after its release in August 1919 he went back to England.

He returned to South Africa in March 1923 and the following year he and his wife were both in Trilby, presented by Maurice Moscovitch at the Cape Town Opera House. When Moscovitch took his company to Australia, they went with him, opening at Melbourne’s Theatre Royal under the J.C. Williamson management. At some stage they returned to South Africa and after his retirement from the stage he became a radio announcer and producer for the African Broadcasting Company, the precursor of the South African Broadcasting Corporation, based at its studio in Durban. He was married twice, in 1898 to Dorothy Caroline Bartlett (they were divorced in South Africa in 1917/18) and subsequently to Winifred Naomi Georgina Widdas (Naomi Rutherford). He died in 1940. (FO)

(Note: Through FreeBMD gives his full name as Robert George Hogarth Mugford, subsequent official documents reverse the first two names, i.e. George Robert Hogarth Mugford)

Sources

S.A. Pictorial (numerous issues)

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