Charles Manners (bass)

Charles Manners (27 December 1857 – 3 May 1935) was a British bass singer and opera company manager. His earliest performances were with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, first as a chorus member and then as a principal, creating the role of Private Willis in Iolanthe in 1882. After leaving D'Oyly Carte the following year, he sang with several opera companies, most notably the Carl Rosa Opera Company and Covent Garden. In 1898, he and his wife, the singer Fanny Moody, set up their own company, dedicated to presenting opera in English.

The Moody-Manners company performed in London, the British provinces, North America and South Africa from 1898 to 1916. After his retirement, Manners continued to campaign for a national opera company, which was eventually founded forty years after his death.

Manners was born Southcote Randal Bernard Campbell Mansergh in Hoddesdon, England, son of Colonel J. C. Mansergh, an Irishman. He was educated at Hoddesdon Grammar School and considered a career in the army. He tried engineering and stockbrokerage before deciding on music as a profession. He studied at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin, the Royal Academy of Music in London, and in Florence.

In either 1881 or 1882 he joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company as a chorus member. In early 1882, he appeared on tour in the chorus of Claude Duval and, later in the same year, in the chorus of H.M.S. Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance. He was promoted to the roles of Dick Deadeye in Pinafore and Samuel in Pirates in August 1882. He also appeared as Mr. Wallaby in the companion piece Quite an Adventure. In November 1882, he created the role of Private Willis in Iolanthe at the Savoy Theatre.

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