Lottie Lyell: before the movies

Lottie Lyell's status in the early years of Australia's motion picture industry is assured. Although she was given little written credit on the films she made with Raymond Longford, it appears that she played a major part in the production of most of them. But of her childhood and adolescence, prior to her involvement in the movie industry, little has been made known.

She was born on 23 February 1890 at 7 Terry Street, Balmain, Sydney, and named Lottie Edith Cox. She was the second of the three daughters of Charlotte Louisa (née Hancock), daughter of a Balmain, Sydney alderman, and Joseph Charles Cox, a land (estate) agent. (Her sisters were Rita Leonora Cox, born on 17 July 1887, and Lynda Marian Cox, born in 1893.) Her parents married on 10 February 1886 at St. Augustine's Presbytery, Balmain.

In late 1906 Lottie's younger sister, Lynda, was a senior pupil at Darling-road Superior Public School (now Rozelle Public School); she was 13 years old. As yet the school that Lottie attended has not been determined, but there is a good chance it was Darling-road Superior Public School.

First public performances

By 1903 she was a pupil of Mercy Murray, a teacher of elocution. The first known reference to Lottie is of her performance in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves at Queen's Hall, Pitt St, Sydney on 11 March 1903. The entertainment was repeated at Balmain Town Hall on 19 March (though none of the performers is named in the review). (Mercy Murray and pupils gave performances in June and July of the previous year and it is possible that Lottie appeared in these, though she is not named.)
On 21 January 1904, at the Masonic Hall, Darling St, Balmain, Lottie recited the poem The Newsboy's Debt,¹ and later the same evening repeated it. "Little Lottie showed that she possesses dramatic powers, which, under the tutelege of Miss Murray, are being rapidly developed."
Again at the Balmain Masonic Hall, on 30 March 1904 Lottie was presented with a silver medal for first prize in an elocution competition.
Later in 1904 there were 2 performances of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves in which Lottie again took part.
(The Balmain Eisteddfod took place in late January 1905, in which there were recitation and elocution performances, but Lottie is not named as a winner.)
On 21 July 1905 she appeared at a "Grand Concert" at Granville Town Hall, Sydney as an assisting artist together with contralto Katie Hancock (who was almost certainly a younger sister of Lottie's mother). Was this a paid performance? Was it Lottie's first professional appearance?
She again appeared with Kate Hancock on 7 February 1906 at a "Grand Promenade Concert" at Ashfield Park, Sydney.
By 1907 she was with Harry Leston's Histrionic Society. She appeared in the play Balloon at the Standard Theatre, Castlereagh St, Sydney on 13 March of that year.
In 1907 she adopted the stage name "Lottie Lyell". It is not known why she chose this surname, though there is an unsubstantiated story that she used the name of a friend's house! However, there was a property called The Lynn at Tamarama, Sydney, whereat resided two of Lottie's paternal grandmother's siblings (and probably, circa 1909, Lottie and her family), and this name appears in the address on letters seen in the 1918 film The Woman Suffers. Is the surname story a twisting of the letter address story, especially considering both names start with "Ly"?
As Lottie Lyell she played the part of Susan in William Anderson's production of George Darrell's play The Land of Gold at the Criterion Theatre, Sydney, with performances starting on 23 November 1907 and finishing on 6 December.
"The Monster Testimonial Vaudeville Entertainments" at the Standard Theatre on 18 March 1908 saw her perform with Harry Leston and many others. There were also biograph pictures shown (though it's not stated by whom). (At this date Raymond Longford was touring in New Zealand.)
On 7 December 1908 at Wollongong Town Hall, New South Wales, Lottie again appeared with Kate Hancock at a charity concert given by the Griffen-Foley Concert Company; she is billed as an "Elocutionist and Society Entertainer".

Travelling player

In 1909 she took to the road, as a professional, with a travelling theatre company.

Edwin Geach's "Englishman's Home" Company started their tour at the Town Hall, West Maitland, New South Wales, on 28 May 1909. Playing a main part in the play was Raymond Longford, and the rehearsals for this may well be when he and Lottie met.
The play went to Singleton, Tamworth, Armidale, Glen Innes, and Tenterfield in New South Wales, and Warwick in Queensland, and then to other towns in New South Wales and Queensland. By 21 July 1909 they were reported to have played in 55 towns in Australia.
In mid-August the company was caught by flood-waters at Murtoa, Victoria while on the way to Sydney via Melbourne. During their enforced stay in the town they performed for their fellow passengers (and possibly also for the residents). (The bass singer Peter Dawson was also on this train.)
On 8 September 1909 the company departed from Sydney on board the Mokoia to go to Auckland, New Zealand; they arrived there on the 12th. They played An Englishman's Home in several towns, but Lottie is not mentioned amongst the cast (though Longford is).
From early November 1909 they appeared in the plays The Fatal Wedding and The Midnight Wedding at various towns in New Zealand.
On 17 December 1909 the company left Wellington, New Zealand on board the Ulimaroa, and arrived at Sydney on the 21st.
In March 1910 Lottie and Longford again went on tour in New South Wales and Queensland with Edwin Geach's company, performing the plays Her Love Against the World, Why Men Love Women, and The Midnight Wedding.
In one promotional notice it is stated that Lottie had "been to England to study her profession": it is difficult to see when she could have done this – she would have been away from Australia for several months – and the statement is most likely cultural-cringe flim-flam.
About August 1910 they joined the Philip Lytton Dramatic Company, again taking on tour The Fatal Wedding (and other plays). (Early in this tour Gilbert Emery also had a part.) November and December were spent in South Australian towns. They finished with this company late in 1910 or very early in 1911. Lottie Lyell and Raymond Longford then commenced their careers in the motion picture industry.

Raymond Longford once stated that Lottie had been placed in his care by her parents. However, the opposite would appear to be the case: he lived with Lottie and her mother and sisters from at the latest 1913, presumably after the death of Lottie's father on 23 July 1912, until 1926, no doubt with them looking after him. Longford separated from his first wife, Melena Louisa (née Keen) by circa 1908.

The Tamarama connection

Lottie's father was Joseph Charles Cox, born on 14 September 1858 at 452 Bourke St, Surry Hills, Sydney, the only child of Joseph Cox and Catherine Stone. Both his parents died when he was young: his father on 6 August 1870 at Forbes, New South Wales (where he was Police Magistrate for the district), and his mother on 17 August 1873 at Forest Lodge, Sydney. Thus Joseph Charles Cox was an orphan at the age of 14 years. As his mother had not left a will, he could not legally – being younger than 21 years – administer her estate, so a guardian was appointed to manage the estate until Joseph Charles reached his majority.

The person entrusted to do this, and apparently chosen by Joseph Charles himself, was David Fletcher, a surgeon dentist who had his business at Wynyard Square, Sydney. From February 1868 to February 1869 Fletcher had been the Mayor of the Borough of Waverley, Sydney – the first person to be appointed to that office. Why was David Fletcher chosen as guardian?

in the 1859-1860 electoral roll for the West Sydney electoral district of New South Wales, Joseph Cox is listed as residing at 42 Wynyard Square, Sydney and David Fletcher has a leasehold at the same address. This would appear to be the connection between the Cox and Fletcher families. By late 1859 Joseph Cox had been appointed Clerk of Petty Sessions at, and moved to, Tambaroora, New South Wales (about 5 km north of the famous gold mining town of Hill End).

Joseph Cox, Lottie's grandfather, was born circa 1831 at Reading, Berkshire, England, and had several siblings, mostly sisters; as far as is known all but one remained in England and did not look after their nephew in New South Wales. Catherine Stone, Lottie's grandmother, was the eldest daughter (of 3) of John Stone and Mary Ann Dunn; she was born on 16 February 1839 at West Maitland, New South Wales. Her sisters were Margaret Jane Stone (born on 20 November 1842 at West Maitland) and Mary Anne Stone (born on 16 March 1849, also at West Maitland). (One brother had died in infancy.) Mary Anne remained single throughout her life, but Margaret Jane, on 18 April 1883 at Darlinghurst, Sydney, married Jules Joseph Lachaume (aka Joseph Jules Lachaume), who was also a dentist who practised at Wynyard Square.

David Fletcher had been a dentist in Sydney since at least 1852. J. J. Lachaume practised in West Maitland, became insolvent in 1869, and had moved his dentistry business to Sydney by the start of 1870. Presumably Fletcher and Lachaume met because they had the same occupations and worked close to one another.

Thus the Cox, Stone, Fletcher, and Lachaume families were variously connected.

Between August 1854 and August 1877 David Fletcher acquired 4 lots of land, with a total area of about 26 acres (about 10½ hectares), at what is now Tamarama, Sydney.

(1877-08-29: Mary Ann and Margaret Jane STONE in Sydney ###)

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Notes

I have evidence for (almost) all of the assertions made above, and hope when time permits to include references on this page.

Also, I have not listed above all the known performances by Lottie.

[1] The Balmain Observer and Western Suburbs Advertiser refers to this poem as The Newsboy's Death, but this appears to be erroneous. There are at least two versions of The Newsboy's Debt: they both tell the same story, in which the newsboy ultimately dies, so the difference in titles is of little import.

FILM HISTORY INDEX

Edition 1 (2020-02-11)