Queenie Leighton
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Queenie Leighton
by Unknown photographer
postcard print, early 1900s
4in. x 3 3/8in. (122 mm x 86 mm) image size
Given by R.L. Fletcher, 1994
Photographs Collection
NPG Ax45871
Artistback to top
- Unknown photographer, Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 6584 portraits.
Subjects & Themesback to top
Events of 1900back to top
Current affairs
The Conservatives return to power, after the Prime Minister Lord Salisbury calls a general election, known as the 'Khaki election', on the back of huge jingoistic support for the Boer War.The Labour Representation Committee (LRC) is founded from a coalition of socialist groups; they win two seats in the 1900 election and Ramsay Macdonald is appointed secretary. The Labour politician Keir Hardie is also returned to Parliament for Merthyr Tydfilin Wales.
Art and science
German physicist Max Planck proposes the concept of the quantum theory. Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams is published. In the text, Freud outlines his theory of dream analysis, crucial to the study of the unconscious, and introduces key concepts in psychoanalysis, such as the Ego.The Paris International Exhibition, attended by more than 50 million people and including over 76,000 exhibitors, marks the heyday of Art Nouveau.
International
In China the Boxer rebellion takes place. The Boxers were anti-imperialist and against foreign influence in trade, religion, politics and technology in the final years of the Manchu rule. The Boxers invade Beijing, killing 230 foreigners and Chinese Christians. The rebellion is suppressed by a multinational coalition of 20,000 troops, with China being forced to pay large war reparations, contributing to growing nationalist resentment against the Qing dynasty.Comments back to top
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Janet Cockerill
26 October 2018, 17:08
This portrait is of Queenie Leighton (born Lilian Caroline Rickard 1874-1943) appearing in the stage musical 'The Toreadors'. She was a popular principal boy in a number of Drury Lane pantomimes such as Dick Whittington in 1908. During World War 1, like many stage artists, Queenie felt it her duty to include patriotic content in her shows and then to form a press gang afterwards and round up groups of young men depositing them at a local recruitment office (see British Theatre in The Great War,Gordon Williams). Queenie married Lieut. Fred Cockerill, my husband's great Uncle, in 1915, her second marriage. She made two unsuccessful silent movies then moved to Lancashire where Fred became a cinema manager.
Gillian McGrandles
05 February 2019, 12:24
I would like to second Janet's correction of Queenie Leighton's birth which was 1874 not 1872. She was born in Islington, London and baptized Lilian Caroline Augusta Rickard on 9th August 1874 at St. Paul's Church, Upper Holloway. The 1881 census shows her aged 6 living in lodgings in St. Martin-in-the-Fields with her mother and older sister whose occupations are listed as 'actress.'