Alma Vaughan

Alma Vaughan (b. Dunedin, New Zealand, **/**/1878 – d. South Africa, **/**/1949) was a singer and actress.

Biography

Maud Walford Gordon (Alma Vaughan) was born in Dunedin, New Zealand to George Graham Gordon, a draper, and his wife Elizabeth Walford. Her first stage appearances were in school concerts, but she started acting professionally in Australia, with her first known role in the pantomime Djin-Djin, the Japanese Bogey-Man at the Princess’s Theatre in Melbourne in 1895. This was followed by numerous parts in plays like Two Little Vagabonds, The Sign of the Cross, A Royal Divorce, The Prisoner of Zenda, Trilby and The Belle of New York, which toured all the big cities. In 1899 she married (Richard Charles) R.C. Pitcher, a fellow actor with the J.C. Williamson Company, and when he left for South Africa, she came with him.

While he became the headmaster of the Twist Street School in Johannesburg and occasionally staged Shakespeare with the pupils of St. John’s College, she concentrated on concert appearances, notably at The Wanderer’s Club, and also taught singing. Nevertheless, in 1904 she appeared with C.V. Becker in Dandy Dick in aid of building funds for St. Mary’s Church at the Masonic Hall in Jeppestown. The play was directed by her husband. In 1908 she was back in Australia, primarily with the Lewis Waller Co. When, in February 1914, Waller took his company to South Africa, she was a member. Between 1914 and 1920 she acted in many plays, first with Waller and Madge Titheradge at His Majesty’s Theatre, and later with the London Dramatic Company at the Palladium Theatre. Some sources also credit her with an unidentified role in the film Fallen Leaves (Dick Cruikshanks/1919), which is quite possible as at the time she was acting on the stage with leading actress Madge Fabian.

She and “Dick” Pitcher were divorced in 1915 and her permanent return to the stage stems from this time. In December 1915, at the age of 37, Pitcher enlisted in the South African Medical Corps and took part in the East African campaign. During the war he contracted malaria and in May 1918 he was evacuated. He died a year later, with his former wife at his bedside. Maud Alma Pitcher died in 1949. (FO)