Roxy Barton

Roxy Barton (8 May 1879 – 1 March 1962) was an Australian actress who had a theatrical career in London.

Roxy Barton as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1905)

She was born in Sydney in Australia in 1879 as Roxane Claudia May Barton, the youngest of 11 children of Jane McCulloch née Davie (1833-1927) and Russell Barton (1930-1916). She commenced her stage career in her native Australia with the Willoughby-Geach Company, appearing in Robbery Under Arms (1898), Man to Man (1899) and Othello (1899), all at the Criterion Theatre in Sydney; The Power and the Glory (1899) at the Lyceum Theatre, Sydney; Tom, Dick and Harry and A Highland Legacy (1901) at the Palace Theatre, Sydney; and in A Stranger in a Strange Land [1904) at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne.[1]

On moving to London to pursue a theatrical career she joined the Company of F. R. Benson, for whom she appeared in The Comedy of Errors (1904–1905) at the Adelphi Theatre and as Athena in The Oresteia Trilogy at the Coronet Theatre in Notting Hill (1905).[2] Next she played Titania in Otho Stuart's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Adelphi Theatre (1905) opposite Oscar Asche as Bottom and Beatrice Ferrar as Puck.[3][4] She returned to her native Australia where she was in The Message from Mars (1906) at the Theatre Royal, Adelaide.[1]

Original artwork of Oscar Asche as Bottom and Roxy Barton as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1905)

On 14 June 1906 at St Marylebone Parish Church in Marylebone in London she married the actor Henry Stephenson Garraway (1871-1956)[5] - who had a successful career as Henry Stephenson. Their daughter was the actress Jean Harriet Garraway (1911–2004). Still something of a celebrity in her native Sydney, the local press covered the event:

A most interesting wedding, which took place recently in London, was that of Miss Roxy Barton, daughter of Mr. Russell Barton, of Five Dock. You will doubtless remember Miss Barton, a very tall, handsome girl, and a clever actress, who played several seasons in Sydney, notably rather a long one with The Message from Mars Company. It was that self-same messenger whom Miss Barton was married – Mr. Henry Stephenson Garraway, known on the stage as Henry Stephenson. Thus they met for the first time, and the engagement has been one of long standing. She is said to have made an extremely handsome bride. Mr. and Mrs. Garraway intend playing for a season in the States, where something good has been offered to them. It will probably be a long time before Mrs. Garraway returns to her native land. When she does she will receive a hearty welcome, as she has a large circle of friends.[3][6]

Barton was Helen in Paris and Oenone at the Savoy Theatre (1906).[7] She played Lady Hampshire opposite Weedon Grossmith in The Night of the Party at the Apollo Theatre (1908).[8]

Her marriage to Henry Stephenson was dissolved some time before 1922, when he remarried. In 1923 listed as a housewife she and her daughter Jean sailed to Sydney in Australia on board the Euripides.[9] In 1939 she was living in St George's Road in Stratford-upon-Avon.[10] In 1948, still as a 'Housewife' she made a visit alone to Sydney in Australia aboard the P&O ship Strathaird.[11] In her later years she lived at 79 Heol Isaf Radyr in Cardiff in Wales.[12]

Roxy Barton Garraway was listed as a 'widow' when she died at the Plymouth Nursing Home in Penarth in Glamorgan, Wales in March 1962. In her will she left £421 3s.[12]