Lily Hanbury


Lily Hanbury was an English stage performer.
Hanbury was born Lilian Florence Alcock, the daughter of Elizabeth and Matthew Henry Alcock. Educated in London, her début was in an 1888 revival of W. S. Gilbert's Pygmalion and Galatea; and later she appeared on most of the leading stages of the English metropolis. Her extensive career included playing 'Countess Wintersen' in The Stranger, 'Hetty Preene' in G. R. Sims's Lights o' London, and 'Petra' in Ibsen's Enemy of the People.
Hanbury reached the peak of her popularity by playing a number or parts in Shakespearian plays, mainly under the management of Wilson Barrett and Herbert Beerbohm Tree.
She died on 5 March 1908 of medical complications following the delivery of a still-born child. Her remains were cremated and her ashes interred at the Jewish Cemetery at Willesden, England.
Hanbury's younger sister, Hilda, also an actress and also at one time a member of Beerbohm Tree's theatrical company, is the grandmother of Edward Fox and James Fox and the great-grandmother of Freddie, Emilia, and Laurence Fox.
Lily and her sister Hilda had a pet dog named "Wobbles" who died in 1900 and is buried in Hyde Park's pet cemetery.