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Mary Pakington

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The Honourable Mary Augusta Pakington MBE (1878 – 1949) was an English playwright and actress and daughter of the Third Baron Hampton.

Early life

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Pakington was born on 21 June 1878, the daughter of the Third Baron Hampton, Herbert Perrott Murray Pakington (1848–1906).[1][2] She was the eldest sister of the Fourth Baron, Lord Hampton (Herbert Stuart Pakington), and Humphrey Arthur Pakington, an authority on architecture.[2][3][4] The Hampton residence was at Waresley Court, Kidderminster.[2]

Career

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Pakington wrote and acted in her 1913 comedy sketch The Old Clock on the Stairs.[3] She wrote a number of one act plays. The House with Twisty Windows was set in Petrograd during the Red Terror.[5] It was performed by the Lena Ashwell Players.[5] Five of her one act plays were written as plays for Scout entertainment: One Good Turn Deserves Another, Jane or The Scout's Nightmare, The Laurel Crown, Mixed Pickles and The N'th Scout Law.[6] She also wrote three act plays. The Tower was produced in London in 1929.[7] In 1937 Pakington and Olive Walter wrote a three act play Wuthering Heights, based on Emily Brontë's novel, which was performed at The Strand by the 1930 Players.[4][8] Pakington and Walter were both associated with the professional company the Greater London Players.[4]

She wrote one historical pageant The Queen of Hearts in which Queen Elizabeth I visited Hartlebury Castle.[6]

She was a judge of one act plays at the British Drama League's Community Drama Festival in Wolverhampton.[9]

Honours and awards

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From 1915 to 1919 Pakington was a British Red Cross Society Volunteer in Worcestershire doing nursing and general hospital work.[10] She was awarded an MBE in the 1920 New Years Honours list as the Honorary Secretary, Worcestershire Women's County Agricultural Committee.[11][12] During World War II she served in the BBC and Civil Defence.[12]

Pakington, who was unmarried, died on 25 September 1949.[12]

Selected works

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Plays and Pageants

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  • A Doctor's Engagements (1903)
  • Ready (1910)
  • The Old Clock on the Stairs (1913)[3]
  • The Patriot (1914)
  • Shakespeare for Merrie England (1915)
  • Rosalind of the Farmyard (1920)[13]
  • One Good Turn Deserves Another (1920)
  • Jane or The Scout's Nightmare (1920)
  • The Laurel Crown (1920)
  • Mixed Pickles (1920)
  • The N'th Scout Law (1920)
  • The Polar Post (1920)
  • Two Christmas Plays (1923)
  • The House with the Twisty Windows (1926)[5]
  • The Queen of Hearts (1926) - a pageant
  • The True Likeness (1928)
  • The Scarlett Mantle (1928)
  • The Tower (1929)
  • The Black Horseman (1929)
  • All Camouflage: an episode of the war (1931)
  • Tear up the Joker! (1931)
  • Poet's Corner (1931)
  • Experiment (1932)
  • Wuthering Heights (1937)[4]
  • Nil Medium (1937)
  • Blow, Bugle, Blow! (1941)
  • Time and Mrs Podbury (1948)

Fiction

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  • The Village of Bentham, A Farewell Sermon and Caught by the Tide (1906)[14]
  • The Little Schoolmaster (1915)

References

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  1. ^ "Pakington, Mary 1878–1949". WorldCat Identities. Archived from the original on 6 December 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  2. ^ a b c "Hampton". Burke's Peerage and Baronetage. 76: 943. 1914.
  3. ^ a b c "In Town and Out". The Tatler. 17 September 1913. p. 5.
  4. ^ a b c d "Notes from Here and There". The Tatler. 27 January 1937. p. 56.
  5. ^ a b c "The Likes of 'Er". The Stage. 8 April 1926. p. 14.
  6. ^ a b Nicoll, Allardyce (1973). English drama, 1900-1930; the beginnings of the modern period. Cambridge [England]: University Press. pp. 246, 870. ISBN 0-521-08416-4. OCLC 588815.
  7. ^ "The Everyman". The Stage. 18 July 1929. p. 14.
  8. ^ "1930 Players". The Stage. 11 February 1937. p. 11.
  9. ^ "Drama Festival at Wolverhampton". The Stage. 24 November 1927. p. 17.
  10. ^ "Mary Augusta Pakington. British Army, Red Cross Society Volunteers 1914–1918". FindMyPast. Archived from the original on 14 March 2021. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  11. ^ "Supplement to the London Gazette". The London Gazette. 31840: 3852. 26 March 1920.
  12. ^ a b c "Hampton". Burke's Peerage and Baronetage. 100: 976. 1953.
  13. ^ "Items". The Stage. 8 July 1920. p. 12.
  14. ^ Pakington, Mary (1906). The Village of Bentham, and other stories. Birmingham: Saint George Press.
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