Clara Millington Dow

Clara Millington Dow, 29 December 1883 - 26 March 1969

• Last leading lady personally trained by W.S. Gilbert; a producer and singer
• Photograph of Clara Dow, from Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
• Article from THE GRAMOPHONE, November 1936 about Mikado, with Clara Dow as Yum-Yum
• Clara Dow lived in Ashtead from 1934 until her death [in a nursing home in Epsom]. She trained at the Royal College of Music, joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and was the last leading lady personally trained by W.S. Gilbert. In 1909 The Times wrote 'She is in our opinion the finest leading lady the company ever had. She has a splendid singing voice, great powers as an actress, infinite grace, and delicacy of movement'. Between 1928 and 1938 and between 1949 and 1954 she produced an operetta every year, including The Beggar's Opera, The Vagabond King and The Desert Song as well as most of the Gilbert and Sullivan repertoire. The 1954 production of Ruddigore was her last: she had then turned seventy.