MATHEWS, Julia [Ann Isabella] (b. London, 14 December 1842; d. St Louis, Mo, 18 May 1876).
Julia Mathews, 1875. Photo by Lock & Whitfield. National Portrait Gallery, London.Taken to Australia as a child, after a handful of juvenile appearances as a dancer and a pianist on the London stage (Surrey Theatre, Strand Theatre, Linwood Gallery), Julia Mathews made her first appearances onthe southern stage (or whatever did duty for a stage) at Sydney’s Royal Victoria Theatre (28 August 1854), Melbourne’s Coppin’s Olympic (30 July 1855) and inthe goldfields, appearing in comedy, drama, comic opera and burlesque whilst still in her earliest teens. She subsequently made herself a considerable name as an actress and vocalist at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne (‘the Queen of burlesque and song’). Amongst the musical shows in which she appeared were numbered The Beggar’s Opera (Polly), The Latest Edition of the Lady of Lyons, Midas, The Fair One with the Golden Locks (Graceful), Esmeralda (Phoebus), Bluebeard (Alidor), Prince Prettypet (Prince), Cinderella the Second (Cinderella), The Little Savage, Endymion (Endymion), Aladdin (Aladdin), The Daughter of the Regiment (Marie), The Queen of Beauty (Queen), The Miller and his Men (Karl) and Theseus and Ariadne (Theseus) and, even in the theatre’s production of dramas, a spot was usually foundto break the action and allow Julia to sing a song or two.
She appeared at the Princess alongside a number of visiting stars, notably Joseph Jefferson, and she gained some additional notoriety when her name was linked with that of the ill-fated explorer R. O’H. Burke whoapparently proposed marriage to her when she was 15 years old. Her parents, who kept a firm control over their lucrative daughter, sent him on his way. In 1863 the Mathewses crossed to the New Zealand goldfields,where Julia was engaged for the Dunedin Princess’s Theatre, and there the young star took advantage of amoment’s inattention by her parents to get herself wed to a shipping agent called William H. Mumford. Two children later, Mumford had his wife back on the stage and he quickly proved as grasping a ‘manager’ as father and mother had been.
In 1866 the family returned to Melbourne, but after one quick rounds of the goldfields, they packed up and setout to return to Britain. Julia arrived in London in October 1867, and she established herself as one of the most celebrated stars of the opéra-bouffe stage when she introduced the title-rôle in Offenbach's La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein to English audiences both in London (Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, 17 November 1867) and in a substantial tour around the provinces. She returned to Covent Garden in 1869 in a double bill of Lischen and Fritzchen and the pantomime The Yellow Dwarf.
In 1870 the new singing star (having divested herself of Mr Mumford) made a first appearance at the Gaiety Theatre and the following year created the title-rôle in Émile Jonas’s Cinderella the Younger (1871) there. She also appeared with the Gaiety company as La Belle Hélène, as Boulotte in Barbe-bleue, as Gigolette in Tromb-al-ca-zar, in the title-rôle of Balfe’s Letty the Basketmaker, in Lischen and Fritzchen and in
No Song No Supper, whilst putting in regular provincial appearances in the kind of repertoire she had played in Australia (The Daughter of the Regiment, The Bohemian Girl etc).
Julia Mathews, 1860s. Photo by Davies & Co., Melbourne
National Library of Australia, Canberra
Julia Mathews, 1860s. Photo by William Bardwell, Melbourne
State Library Victoria, Melbourne
In 1872 she played Fleur de Noblesse in the London version of Hervé's L’Oeil crevé, and in 1873 she appeared as Mlle Lange to the Clairette of Selina Dolaro in the first English-language La Fille de Madame Angot at the Philharmonic, Islington, following up therein the dual title-rôle of the English version of Giroflé-Girofla (1874) and, at Christmas of the same year, she created the part of Alice Fitzwarren in Offenbach's
brand new Whittington at the London Alhambra. In 1875 she toured for Mrs Liston in Giroflé-Girofla, and then, after three ‘farewell’ performances at the Gaiety, she set off to New York at the head of a company organised by Alexander Henderson and Samuel Colville. She played a season at Wallack’s Theatre with Giroflé-Girofla, La Grande-Duchesse, Les Prés Saint Gervais and a mangled version of Barbe-bleue, before setting off on tour, but the company collapsed in its first date.
Julia Mathews as The Duchess in The Grand Duchess at Covent Garden Theatre, 1867. Photo by London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company.
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Julia Mathews as Mademoiselle Lange in La Fille de Madame Angot at the Philharmonic Theatre, 1873. Photo by London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company.
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Most of the company went home, but Julia stayed in America,and after struggling through some second rate engagements, managed to set up a fresh tour. She started out in Indianapolis to glorious notices (‘Her acting was modest and spirited, and her singing ... thrillingly beautiful ... we have seen no-one worthy to be compared to her’) but six weeks later, in St Louis, she was off, ill. A few days later she was dead, at the age of just 33.
