George Grossmith - Life and Career

Life and Career

George Grossmith was born in Islington, London and grew up in St. Pancras and Hampstead, London. His father, also named George (1820–1880), was the chief reporter for The Times and other newspapers at the Bow Street Magistrates' Court and was also a lecturer and entertainer. His mother was Louisa Emmeline Grossmith née Weedon (d. 1882). Over the years, Grossmith's father spent less of his time at Bow Street and more of it touring as a performer. As a young man, Grossmith was usually credited as "Jnr" to distinguish him from his father, especially when they performed together, but for most of his career, he was credited simply as "George Grossmith". Later, his actor-playwright-theatre manager son was credited as George Grossmith "Jr" rather than "III"; some sources confuse the two men. His other son, Lawrence Grossmith, was also a successful actor, primarily in America.

Grossmith had a younger sister, Emily, and younger brother, Weedon. In 1855, he went to boarding school at Massingham House on Haverstock Hill in the district of Hampstead. There he studied the piano and began to amuse his friends and teachers with shadow pantomimes, and later by playing the piano by ear. His family moved to Haverstock Hill when young Grossmith was 10, and he became a day student. At the age of 12, he transferred to the North London Collegiate School in Camden Town. He was back in St. Pancras by age 13. He was an avid amateur photographer and painter as a teenager, but it was his brother Weedon who went to art school. The Grossmith family had many friends engaged in the arts, including J. L. Toole, Ellen Terry, Henry Irving, H. J. Byron, Tom Hood, T. W. Robertson, and John Hollingshead (later, the manager of the Gaiety Theatre, London).

Grossmith had hoped to become a barrister. Instead, he worked for many years, beginning in the 1860s, training and then substituting for his father as the Bow Street reporter for The Times, among other publications, when his father was on his lecture tours. Among the cases on which he reported was the Clerkenwell bombing by the Fenians in 1867. At the same time as he began reporting, he began to write humorous articles for periodicals and to participate in amateur theatrical performances. He also joined his father in his entertainments, lectures, and imitations, and began to add music to the entertainments, which his father had not done. In 1873, Grossmith married Emmeline Rosa Noyce (1849–1905), the daughter of a neighbourhood physician, whom he had met years earlier at a children's party. The couple had four children: George, Sylvia (23 September 1875 – 1932; married Stuart James Bevan in 1900), Lawrence and Cordelia Rosa (31 March 1879–1943). The family lived initially in Marylebone before moving, about 1885, to 28 Dorset Square nearby.