TRAGIC END

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4956, 16 February 1937, Page 2

TRAGIC END

STAGE BEAUTY.

ONE OF THE GAIETY GIRLS. With misfortune dogging her footsteps in old age, a former George Edwardes Gaiety Girl, whose beauty made her the toast in London society during her heydey, has died in tragic circumstances. She mysteriously d'sappeared from a house in Batersea, and on the fourth day of a search her body was discovered in the stone area. She is believed to have fallen accidentally from to top of some steps and broken her neck. To her neighbours the woman, who brought laughter to ti e lives of many, was known as Mrs. Frances Wallis, but her real name was Mrs. Frances Stacey, believed to be 65 years of age. When she played the lead in shows presented by Mr. Oscar Barrett her stage name was Miss Maud Guest. She figured in musical comedy with George Robey, and as a child was painted by Maria Brooks. Picture in Royal Academy. The picture, which was hung in the Royal Academy, is entited *‘l Wonder If It Is True.’’ Mrs. Stacey was reputed to have lost her personal fortune during the Hatry crash and her daughter is stated to have married a Greek count. Mrs. Stacey was first missed when she failed to keep an appointment with the occupiers of the flat above her, who had arranged that she should listen-in at their apartment. It was the tenant of this flat, a Mr. Senior, who subsequently found her body. She had apparently missed her step when trying to open the door at night, and fallen 12ft into the area. One of the first persons to visit Mrs. Stacey’s flat after the tragedy was a well-dressed and cultured woman of about 38. Speaking with emotion, this woman, who refused to reveal her name, said, “I have lost the greatest friend I ever had.” Friend of Henry lrvint|. Mrs. Stacey,” the woman added, “was a well-known dancer, and was one of the first Gaiety girls employed by the famous theatrical producer George Edwardes. “Among her friends she counted the late Sir Henry Irving, and it is only 15 years since she retired from the stage.” The daughter, who did not disclose her married name, told the story of her mother’s last days. “In films and on the stage 1 am Betina Campbell,” the daughter declared, “but my private life is my own. “My mother was a beautiful woman. ‘She was well known in comic opera. She had many admirers and was one of the outstanding beauties of her day. “My mother amassed quite a fortune and she was careful with it. I married well and went abroad. Difficult To Live With. “I was devoted to her, but whon she grew old she got very depressed and got difficult to live with. I tried to keep her in the position which she had always known, and for several years she used to go with me to the south of France. Then came the Hatry crash, and she lost most of her money. “She saved enough for a small weekly allowance which she eked out by acting as a housekeeper to an old friend. “My mother was very proud, and, rather than meet old friends, who had known her in the gay champagne days, she moved to Battersea, and assumed the name of Wallis. “She said to me: ‘I do not want anyone to know me now. I do not wish people to know that I have reached hard times.’ ” The daughter added that when she learned that her mother had been ill she went and stayed with her, and waited up all night for her return when she first disappeared. The last act in Mrs. Stacey’s little home was the removal of faded photographs, relics of the Gaiety days, from the walls.