Let’s Not Forget Agnes Bartholomew, a “Noted Scots Actress”, Who Died in Glasgow, in September 1955

An obituary on page five of The Glasgow Herald, on Monday the 12th of September, 1955, reads:

 

“Death of Noted Scots Actress

 

Mrs Holmes E. Herbert, who for many years was well known on the platform and stage as Miss Agnes

Bartholomew died at the week-end. Miss Bartholomew was a native of Glasgow, her parents having

come to the city from Stirlingshire, and for many years her home was at Cambuslang.

 

While she was still a young woman Miss Bartholomew secured an engagement from the Glasgow

Abstainers’ Union, and that marked the beginning of a long association with the old City Hall

Saturday evening concerts. She went to London and studied under Genevieve Ward and at Tree’s

Academy of Dramatic Art. Thereafter she developed her powers as an actress, appearing with

marked success in the principal parts of Zangwill’s ‘Merely Mary Ann,’ ‘Diana of Dobson’s,’ ‘Mrs

Gorringe’s Necklace,’ and other productions. The plays of J. M. Barrie naturally gave fine scope

for her skill in character study, such as Babbie in ‘The Little Minister,’ Lucy White in ‘The

Professor’s Love Story,’ and Kate in ‘The £12 Look.’

 

Of particular interest to Glasgow was her appearance as Clotilde Fortune in Neil Munro’s

‘Macpherson’ and as Mary, Queen of Scots in the play of that name written by the late

George Eyre-Todd for production at the Scottish National Exhibition held at Kelvingrove

in 1911. She also portayed Scottish characters in the Glasgow Repertory Theatre, among them

Mrs MacLeerie in J. J. Bell’s ‘Oh Christina’ and Mrs McOstrich in ‘Wee Macgreegor.’

 

No Scotswoman has ever excelled her in interpreting the poetry of Robert Burns, and she was

incomparably fine in her handling of the characteristic sketches of Charles Murray and other

Scots authors from whom her varied repertoire was drawn. She had mastered all the dialects.

 

WORK FOR CHARITY

 

It was computed that after the First World War she had raised no less than £10,000 for

charities. To the Trades House of Glasgow she had long been generous, and, on her marriage

in 1914 to Dr Harry Lumsden, the clerk of the House, who died in 1939, the link with the

Incorporations became closer still.

 

In 1952 she married Holmes E. Herbert, an American film actor, and she made her home in

California. She returned to Scotland on holiday in June and became ill shortly after her

arrival.”

 

 

The notice of her death is on the front page of the Herald, under Herbert, on Tuesday the 13th of September.

 

For more information about her second husband, please see his entry in wikipedia. Born

Horace Edward Jenner, in England, in 1882, he emigrated to the United States in 1912. He

appeared in more than 200 films, spanning the silent and talkies. Agnes was his third wife.

The actor died in 1956.

 

 

George Fairfull-Smith, November 2022.