THE D'OYLY CARTE OPERA COMPANY

Clive Hersee (1879)

[Born Camberwell, London 3 Aug 1849, died Central City, Colorado 3 Jun 1881]

Clive Hersee took the part of Dick Deadeye in H.M.S. Pinafore with the touring Comedy Opera Company Ltd., under the management of Richard D'Oyly Carte, from July to December 1879. It was his only role with the Carte organization.

Hersee made his London debut in October 1871 as Henry Ashton at St. James's Theatre in Lucy of Lammermoor. The following year he appeared in the small part of Grand Claude in an Augustin Daly production of a "grand spectacular fairy opera-bouffe" Le Roi Carotte at New York's Grand Opera House.

Clive Hersee was the bother of the popular operatic soprano Rose Hersee. He toured in South Africa and America, as well as the United Kingdom, with her and with Emily Soldene. It was on one such tour in America that he commited suicide by jumping from a railway bridge.

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