Annie Horniman

Annie Elizabeth Fredericka Horniman CH (3 October 1860 – 6 August 1937) was an English theatre patron and manager. She established the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and founded the first regional repertory theatre company in Britain at the Gaiety Theatre in Manchester. She encouraged the work of new writers and playwrights, including W. B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and members of what became known as the Manchester School of dramatists.

Annie Horniman was born at Surrey Mount, Forest Hill, London, in 1860, the elder child of Frederick John Horniman and his first wife Rebekah née Elmslie. Her father was a tea merchant and the founder of the Horniman Museum; her grandfather was John Horniman who founded the family tea business of Horniman and Company. Annie and her younger brother Elmslie were educated privately at their home. Her father was opposed to the theatre, which he considered was sinful, but their German governess took Annie and Elmslie secretly to a performance of The Merchant of Venice at The Crystal Palace when Annie was aged 14.

Annie's father allowed her to enter the Slade School of Fine Art in 1882. Here she discovered that her talent in art was limited but she developed other interests, particularly in the theatre and opera. She took great pleasure in Wagner's Ring cycle and in Ibsen's plays. She cycled in London and twice over the Alps, smoked in public and explored alternative religions. The "lonely rich girl" had become "an independent-minded woman". In 1890 she joined the occult society, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, where she remained a member until disagreements with its leaders led to her resignation in 1903. During this time she met and became a friend of W. B. Yeats, acting as his amanuensis for some years. Their friendship endured: Frank O'Connor recalled that on the day Yeats heard of her death, he spent the entire evening speaking of his memories of her.

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