Walter Brandon Thomas was born on the 24th of December 1848 in Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, the eldest of the three children of Walter Thomas and his wife, Hannah, née Morris and later became known as Brandon Thomas. He was born into meager circumstances as his father Walter was a cobbler and an inventor who, although able to send his son to a private school at one time, struggled financially when he failed to patent his invention for the elastic sided boot. To make ends meet, Thomas worked as a juvenile at a shipyard and the Thomas family took in theatrical lodgers, one of which included the young actor Henry Irving who would later become one of the most famous actors of his time. Brandon was educated at the Liverpool Institute and later at a private school in Prescot. At the age of 14 he enlisted in the Royal Marines but was bought out after six weeks. Learning book keeping, he became a clerk with local Liverpool timber merchants until 1875, when he took a similar post in Hull where his family was by then living. Here he augmented his salary with occasional journalism with The Times noting that at 17 he published "a striking pamphlet" attacking the hymn-writers Moody and Sankey.
His chief love, however, was the theatre, something his father didn't approve of, and he appeared as an amateur in Hull, singing and reciting at temperance concerts, and performing in music halls and drawing room entertainments, playing the piano and singing his own songs. Through the influence of a local businessman, Albert Rollit, he secured an engagement with William and Madge Kendall at the Court Theatre, London and made his first professional stage appearance there at age 30, in April 1879, as Sandy in 'The Queen's Shilling', beginning his acting career. He became a demanded character actor on stage and soon wrote his own plays and revues, with the first staged play written by him, 'Comrades' premiered in 1882. This "new and critical comedy" opened with a cast including Arthur Cecil, D.G. Boucicault and Marion Terry. When the Kendals moved from the Court Theatre in Chelsea to the St. James's Theatre in the West End, Brandon went with them and remained in their company playing small roles until 1885, when he joined Rosina Vokes's company as its leading man on an American tour that lasted into the middle of 1886. On his return to London, he continued to write, producing several plays in the mid to late 1880s, and appeared in supporting roles.
On his return to London he continued to appear in supporting roles and received acclaim over the next several years as an uncouth Scottish highlander, a captain, a young lover, and a cynical model. Then in 1888, just two months shy of his fortieth birthday, he married his long-time sweetheart, Marguerite Blanche Leverson, the daughter of James Leverson, a diamond merchant. Their marriage had been delayed due to religious objections from the family. Marguerite’s father finally relented and Brandon and Marguerite married and became the parents of three children: Amy, Jevan and Sylvia. Both Amy and Jevan went on to have theatrical careers of their own. As a character actor he had the great advantage of a facility for regional accents. Of one performance, the critic W. A. Lewis Bettany wrote: "The dialect was of course perfect; is not our actor the one acknowledged master of dialect on the stage?" In 1891, he had a conspicuous artistic and financial success in a triple bill at Terry's Theatre when he invested £1,000 in a production of three one-act plays: his own 'The Lancashire Sailor', Weedon Grossmith's 'A Commission' and Cecil Clay's 'A Pantomime Rehearsal'. He took prominent roles in all three, displaying his versatility as 'a romantic young lover', a delightfully cynical model and as the heavy, stupid Captain. The production ran for 152 performances, transferring to the Shaftesbury Theatre and making a good profit.
Brandon was surrounded by well-known artists and actors during his career, many of whom he called friends. One of those friends, W.S. Penley, asked him to write “a pretty little three act comedy with plenty of fun in it and a touch of sentiment.” So in 1892, the resulting comic play 'Charley’s Aunt' was produced by Penley, who also took the lead role as Lord Fancourt Babberly; and they began touring in the English provinces. When the Royalty Theatre in London became unexpectedly vacant, Penley snatched up the available theater and opened 'Charley’s Aunt' there on the 21st of December 1892. Brandon also took to the stage in his own play playing Sir Francis Chesney for the first few weeks. The play garnered immediate success and praise and transferred to the larger Globe Theatre on the 30th of January1893 where it broke all historic records for plays of any kind when it ran for a record-breaking 1,466 performances across four years, closing on the 19th of December 1896. The play saw success throughout the world and was translated into several languages. Continuing to prosper as both an actor and a playwright, in 1892, he played in W. S. Gilbert’s 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern', a parody of 'Hamlet', and 'Faithful James', by B. C. Stephenson, with Ellaline Terriss, both at the Court Theatre. He was especially well known for his ability to adapt his speech to portray different dialects as a character actor. His later play titles included 'Marriage', (1892), 'The Swordsman’s Daughter' , (1895), '22a Curzon Street', (1898), 'Women Are So Serious', (1901), 'Fourchette & Co.' (1904) and 'A Judge’s Memory', (1906). However, none of his later works ever saw the success of 'Charley’s Aunt'.
Walter Brandon Thomas died at his home in Bloomsbury, London in 1914 at the age of sixty-five after a brief illness and was buried in Brompton Cemetery. He left behind a legacy of comedy in his triumphant 'Charley’s Aunt' that continues to grace modern day stages over 100 years since its first run in England. In his obituary on the 20th of June 1914, 'The Times' quoted him as saying, “I hoped to go down to fame as a great actor. If I go at all it will be as the author of 'Charley’s Aunt'.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/06/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians_9.html
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