Marie Longmore

Daughter of Alexander Longmore and Eleanor nee Swainson.
As a child she travelled with her parents who were with Ryan's Amphitheatre. Her father was a scenery painter and her mother a performer.
Marie was very versatile but she was at her best in burlesque and as a prncipal boy in pantomime. She also appeared in stage dramas including plays by Shakespeare. She travelled to the States in 1869 and starred in a pantomime in New York, but it was a flop. She subsequently became part of Augustin Daly's stock company at his 5th Avenue Theatre and then travelled the country as with Lydia Thompson's Troupe of Blondes.
She married Frederick Humphreys who was the conductor of the orchestra at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham. Fred Humphreys was also a composer and an accomplished violinist and cellist. They were very much a part of bohemian society in Birmingham. They had two sons, who were both talented musicians. One became a conductor and the other held senior positions in the British embassies in Hungary and Roumania.
Marie always wanted to work and in later life she toured the music halls as a serio-comic and singer. She later became a singer with concert parties.
Her grandson, Leslie Alexander Longmore Humphreys, was the first leader of the F Section of the wartime Special Operations Executive and set up escape routes in Western Europe. He recruited the secret agent Vera Atkins.