When I was a young child of about 7 or 8, my parents took me
to performances of the light operas by Gilbert and Sullivan which I absolutely
loved, so when I discovered that one of the popular beauties of Edwardian post
cards, Isabel Jay, had become part of the D’Oyly Carte company after singing
for Arthur Sullivan, I wanted to know more about her life.
In 1901 a journalist interviewed Isabel and her mother at
their residence in Westminster Palace Gardens. She appeared to be sweet and naïve,
proud of her achievements while at the royal Academy of Music when she had been
awarded bronze and silver medals for elocution and a gold medal for operatic
singing. She was still practising the
piano each day but really enjoying the parts she had been given in The Mikado,
Iolanthe and the Pirates of Penzance.
A reviewer for The Era wrote of her: "Miss Isabel Jay's
bright, alert acting and fascinating personality would have condoned many
deficiencies. But in addition to winning all hearts by her freshness and
earnestness, Miss Jay gave us a delightfully easy and accomplished rendering of
her share of the score, and the way in which she used a very valuable voice
told of sound training and keen intelligence."
Isabel Jay left the company in 1902 to marry the explorer Henry Sheppard Hart Cavendish
Henry Sheppard Hart Cavendish, born in Kensington in 1876,
was famous for his explorations and hunting achievements. After leaving Eton,
he travelled widely in Africa, firstly shooting big game up the Zambesi. Later
he visited the west side of Lake Rudolph in East Central Africa making notes for
the Geographical Society of London. On this journey he was accompanied by 80
armed Somalians and 150 camels. When he reached Lake Stephanie a wounded
elephant charged him and sat on him for 30 minutes. Its head was presented to
the British museum. Cavendish also returned to London with 38 kinds of game.
When in England he loved music, classical and popular and this is how he came
to meet Isabel Jay.
Cavendish also attracted the attention of journalists.
Photographs of his London home in 1900 showed the collection of antelope, elephant,
giraffe, buffalo and lion heads which he had shot personally. Prior to his marriage Cavendish became
entangled in a friendship with a man called Major Strutt after believing his
dead mother told him at seances to make the Major his financial advisor. Early
in the marriage Cavendish was bankrupt and their relationship was in
trouble. The details of their subsequent
divorce are painful to read because of his ill-treatment of Isabel but
amazingly he remarried four more times.
Isabel returned to the stage in 1903 and after Cavendish reneged
on this promise to give up alcohol the couple were divorced in 1906.
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| Isabel Jay |
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| Frank Curzon |
In the meantime,
Isabel appeared in productions of the actor manager Frank Curzon and the couple
eventually married in 1910. Isabel
retired from the stage at the age of 31 before the birth of her second
daughter. She died in 1927, aged 47, in Monte Carlo. Her husband Frank died
later that year, after watching the horse he had trained win the Derby.
The RSM Isabel Jay Medal for Singing
You can read more about Cavendish and Major Strutt at Stage Beauty
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