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Vera Beringer
A young white woman, posed with a fan, holding one side of her skirt with her other hand; she is wearing a loose-fitting dress with round baggy upper sleeves and an open neckline; her hair is long and loose
Vera Beringer, from an 1896 publication
Born(1878-03-02)2 March 1878
London
Died29 January 1964(1964-01-29) (aged 85)
Brighton
Other namesHenry Seton
Occupation(s)Actress, playwright
Parent(s)Oscar Beringer and Aimée Daniell Beringer
RelativesEsme Beringer (sister)

Vera Beringer (2 March 1878 – 29 January 1964) was a British actress and writer. As a child she became well-known for playing Little Lord Fauntleroy on the London stage. Later she was a playwright, sometimes using the byline Henry Seton.

Early life

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Vera Beringer was born in London in 1878,[1][Notes 1] the younger daughter of German-born pianist Oscar Beringer and American-born novelist and playwright Aimée Daniell Beringer.[2] Her sister was actress Esme Beringer.[3] Her brother Guy Beringer was a journalist, credited with coining the word "brunch" in 1895.[4] She attended Praetoria House school in Folkestone, together with Ford Madox Ford and Elsie Martindale, who was to become Ford's wife.[5]

Career

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Esme (left) and Vera Beringer (right) in My Lady's Orchard (1897)

Beringer became internationally famous in childhood[6] for originating the role of Little Lord Fauntleroy on the London stage in 1888.[7][8] She was coached in stagecraft by Madge Kendal.[9] As a teen, she played Juliet to her sister's Romeo in a production of Romeo and Juliet.[10] Other stage appearances included roles in The Pillars of Society (1889),[11] The Prince and the Pauper (1890),[12] That Girl (1890), On a Doorstep (1890),[13] Holly Tree Inn (1891),[14][15] Richelieu (1896), Our Boys (1896),[16] The Pilgrim's Progress (1896),[17] My Lady's Orchard (1897),[18] A Warm Member (1898),[13] Shadows on the Blind (1898),[13] Alone in London (1900),[19] The Broken Melody (1902),[20] Warp and Woof (1904),[20] Fanny and the Servant Problem (1908),[1] The Whip (1910),[1] The Odd Woman (1912),[21] The Vision of Delight (1912),[21] The Absent-Minded Husband (1913),[21] The Morning Post (1913),[21][22] and The Man from Blankley's (1930). During World War I, she and her sister entertained American and British troops in London.[23] She played Gertrude to her sister's Hamlet in 1938, and the sisters gave further Shakespeare performances during World War II.[3]

Beringer wrote at least nineteen plays, often under the pen name "Henry Seton",[1][20][21][24] including The Boys (1908), False Dawn (1910, with Morley Roberts), Pierrot's Little Joke (1912), Three Common People (1912), A Penny Bunch (1912-1913), The Blue-Stocking (1913, with Mesley Down; an adaptation of Molière's Les Femmes Savantes),[25] Set a Thief (1915),[26] Lucky Jim (1915), Daring (1917), A Pair (1917), The Honourable Gertrude (1918), Biffy (1920, with William Ray), Beltane Night (1923), The Painted Lady (1924),[27] Alice and Thomas and Jane (1932), House Full (1933), and It Might Happen to You (1937).[28] Her play Another Man's Life was adapted for television in 1957.

Lewis Carroll wrote a limerick titled "To Miss Vera Beringer".[29] In 1933 Vera Beringer and Madge Kendal appeared together as speakers in London, advocating for male teachers and headmasters at boys' schools.[30]

Personal life

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Beringer lived in Hove in her later years, and died in 1964, aged 85 years, at a nursing home in Brighton.[3] She left all her property to her sister, who survived her.[31]

Notes

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  1. ^ Though some sources that give 1879 as the year, Vera Beringer's birth was registered in London in 1878; ''Civil Registration Birth Index'', via Ancestry.com

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Who's who in the Theatre. Pitman. 1922. p. 63.
  2. ^ "Drama". The Academy and Literature. 52: 287. 9 October 1897.
  3. ^ a b c "Vera Beringer". Great War Theatre. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  4. ^ Rhodes, Jesse (6 May 2011). "The Birth of Brunch: Where Did This Meal Come From Anyway?". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  5. ^ Goldring, Douglas (1948). The last pre-Raphaelite: A record of the life and writings of Ford Madox Ford. London, UK: Macdonald. p. 31.
  6. ^ "A Clever Child Actress". Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919). 25 May 1889. p. 29. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Trove.
  7. ^ Colclough, Dyan (26 January 2016). Child Labor in the British Victorian Entertainment Industry: 1875–1914. Springer. p. 80. ISBN 978-1-137-49603-4.
  8. ^ Carpenter, Angelica Shirley; Shirley, Jean (1 January 1990). Frances Hodgson Burnett: Beyond the Secret Garden. Twenty-First Century Books. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-8225-4905-5.
  9. ^ "How Children Are Trained for the Stage". The Pall Mall Gazette. 23 May 1888. p. 1. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "A Lady Romeo". The Irish Playgoer and Amusement Record. 1: 18. 14 December 1899.
  11. ^ Franc, Miriam Alice (1919). Ibsen in England. Four Seas Company. p. 169.
  12. ^ Dramatic Notes: An Illustrated Year-book of Thestage. D. Bogue. October 1891. p. 195.
  13. ^ a b c Wearing, J. P. (21 November 2013). The London Stage 1890-1899: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Scarecrow Press. pp. 8, 377, 394. ISBN 978-0-8108-9282-8.
  14. ^ Dramatic Notes: An Illustrated Year-book of Thestage. D. Bogue. January 1891. p. 15.
  15. ^ "Vera Beringer's Farewell". The Era. 17 January 1891. p. 10. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Vera Beringer". The Era Annual. 1896. p. 29.
  17. ^ "The Pilgrim's Progress". The Theatre. 29: 101. 1 February 1897.
  18. ^ Archer, William (1898). The Theatrical "World" for ... Walter Scott, Limited. p. 275.
  19. ^ "Duchess Theatre, Balham". The Era. 4 August 1900. p. 8. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ a b c Wearing, J. P. (2013). The London Stage 1900-1909: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Scarecrow Press. pp. 86, 194, 422. ISBN 9780810892941.
  21. ^ a b c d e Wearing, J. P. (19 December 2013). The London Stage 1910-1919: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-9300-9.
  22. ^ "The Woman in the Case". The Observer. 30 March 1913. p. 9. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ "Lady Mary's London Society". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 25 August 1918. p. 12. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ Gale, Maggie (7 March 2008). West End Women: Women and the London Stage 1918 - 1962. Routledge. p. 203. ISBN 978-1-134-88672-2.
  25. ^ Molière (1926). The Blue-stocking: Adapted by Vera Beringer and Mesley Down, from Molière's Comedy "Les Femmes Savantes". S. French, Limited.
  26. ^ "Set a Thief". Great War Theatre. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  27. ^ "Last Night's New Play; 'The Painted Lady' at the Everyman". The Observer. 13 January 1924. p. 13. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. ^ "It Might Happen to You: A New Children's Play at Liverpool". The Guardian. 28 December 1937. p. 12. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  29. ^ Beringer, To Miss Vera. "To Miss Vera Beringer by Lewis Carroll". AllPoetry. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  30. ^ "Women Teachers 'Not Fitted for Boys' Schools'". The Sydney Morning Herald. 15 December 1933. p. 12. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  31. ^ "Miss Fauntleroy Leaves £5943". Evening Standard. 20 April 1964. p. 12. Retrieved 28 August 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
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