THE MANY FACES OF

MRS LILLIAN CLARE CASSIDY

PLAYWRIGHT, ACTRESS, COMEDIENNE,...

MADWOMAN?

Lillian Clare Cheetham was born in Huddersfield , Yorkshire in 1874 the youngest child and only daughter of Robert Cheetham a Furrier and Mary Ann Wilson.  Her mother died when she was just seventeen and by the age of nineteen Lillian had begun her professional career as  an actress. 

Lillian's advertisement in the Stage newspaper 1st of June 1893.

She joined the Hardie Von Leer Theatre Company sometime between June of 1893 and the beginning of 1894.  In February of that year she appeared as Mary Martin in "The Fast Mail".  According to "The Stage" the young actress's performance was "marked with artistic ease and polish". She continued to tour with the HardieVon Leer Company, gaining experience and sharpening and polishing her theatrical skills. 

In February of 1894 the company began work on a new production "On the Frontier" and with the new play came a new addition to the company, Mr James Rice Cassidy, an all singing all dancing, comedic actor.  Lillian's character was Rose Austin and Cassidy provided much of the humour with his character Michael O'Dare.  The play was highly successful and toured until November 1895.  It became apparent that James and Lillian had much in common  and so began a partnership that was to last thirty three years.  

Lillian Clare Cheetham and James Rice Cassidy were married in St Anne's RC Church, Leeds on the 11th December 1895.  The officiating priest was Father C Croskell.  There were three witnesses at the ceremony!!  Lillian's brother James Robert Cheetham, her step-brother James Calvert Wilson and Minnie Wilkinson a chorus girl and friend of Lillian's.  

It seems fair to say that the old showbusiness adage of "the show must go on" could be applied to the Cassidys as there was no honeymoon and the next day it was work as usual.  This review of "The Sons of Erin" appeared in "The Stage" just a few days after they got married:

Lillian was not just an actress, comedienne and singer she was also a writer and poet.  She began writing her own plays all of which she performed in herself alongside her husband.

Some of Lillian's plays.  

She was in her time a very prolific and successful playwright  and her play "His Mothers Cross" was performed in the Hudson Theatre Broadway New York during their tour of the USA.  

James and Lillian never had any children of there own and poured all of their time and energy into their theatre company.  "The Pinch of Another Man's Shoes" was another orginal work by Lillian.  This particular production was staged in Hull on Monday 17th April 1917.

She was involved in the Actors association a forerunner to Equity and attended their meetings.  At the moment I do not have anymore information on how deeply she was involved.  She and James were never apart and their showbusiness career was their lives.  They eat, slept and breathed the theatre.  

In early 1927 James's health deteriorated.  He suffered from a chronic kidney condition which meant that he no longer could perform and what had been a double act was fast becoming a solo career for Lillian.  James developed heart failure as a complication of the chronic nephritis.

James Rice Cassidy died on the 11th May 1927.  After thirty two years of marriage Lillian found herself very much alone.   They had never been separated in all that time so her devastation at her husband’s passing must have been total.   Shortly after James died she went to live with her step brother J C Wilson in Nottingham.  She then moved to Dittisham in Devon and tried to carry on with her acting and playwrighting career but eventually returned to her native Huddersfield where she lived with her brother James for a while. 

In April of 1930 she was admitted to Deanhouse institution, which was a workhouse with an infirmary attached. Prior to the establishment of public mental asylums in the mid-nineteenth century (and in some cases even after that), the mentally ill and mentally handicapped poor were often consigned to the workhouse.  The workhouse regime was a hard one and  entering it would have been a last resort and an extremely distressing experience. New inmates would often have already been through a period of severe hardship and in Lillian's case the trigger had been the death of her beloved James.   She was diagnosed as suffering from confusional insanity and it seems highly probable that James's death had led to a complete mental breakdown.  Obviously her family could no longer cope with her condition and since this was before the NHS was introduced the workhouse was the only solution. 

Confusional insantity was also known as manic depression or more recently bi polar disorder.  She would have periods of elation and then suddenly become very morose and peevish.  She also suffered from hallucinations in which a lover, whom she called George, would appear to her disguised as a bird.  On several ocassions the matron of Deanhouse had found Lillian out of control and trying to escape from the hospital.  She noted that she was "strange" in her manner and very talkative.

She was transferred to Storthes Hall Psychiatric Hospital in June the same year and was to spend the last fourteen years of her life there.   

On admission to Storthes Hall she was put under observation which lasted for two months.  In that time it was noted that she had "written a great deal of nonsense in a jumble of various languages and had preferred to remain in bed although she was not ill".

There appears to have been a history of mental illness in the family.  Lillian's father had died in Deanhouse "demented".  Her paternal uncle had commited suicide by cutting his own throat  and her brother James committed suicide in August 1931.  He had been found dead in the street having consumed a toxic substance, which corroded his throat and intestines.  His wife later informed staff at the hospital that her husband had been "queer for years and that she often had to lock her door at night in fear of him".  

On the 4th of June Lillian's diagnoses was reported as suffering from "Delusional Insanity" 

"She suffers from delusions of persecution and grandeur.  She believes she is a famous playwright and that others are trying to steal the royalties from her plays.  Reports go on to describe her as: 

"Elated, grandiose and deluded.  She will not work or occupy herself usefully and suffers from delusions of persecution and gradeur, imagining herself to be a world famous actress, playwright and poet.  She is always busy with insane writings, full of grandiose ideas and dresses in the most eccentric and peculiar manner.  She has no insight into her condition and can at times be aggressive and resistive"

Just over a year before his death Lillian's brother James Robert had written to the hospital requesting that his sister be allowed her own clothes and her trinkets.  

They agreed to her having some of her clothing but refused to let her have her trinkets.  He had also requested more regular visits with his sister. The Medical Superintendent wrote back to James agreeing to more visits but added that "frequent visiting does not assist the patient but under the circumstances you can come once a fortnight, but not oftener, on any of the visiting days"

James Robert Cheetham died on the 13th August 1931. 

Lillian was visited from time to time by her sister-in-law Martha Cheetham (James's widow) and her niece Florence Sheard.  She was also supported financially by James Calvert Wilson her step brother. He had been contributing to her maintenance although at one point in 1939 she had asked for a message to be passed on to him that she was "indignant to the roots of her hair because he will not send her an allowance in money, which", she says, "would give her a certain amount of self respect and independence".

Lillian never regained her sanity.  However she was often described by medical and nursing staff as having delusions of grandeur believing herself to be a famous actress and playwright.  Although her alleged imagined status became more and more fanciful as her illness progressed, nevertheless it was not all together untrue to say that she was, in her time, a highly successful, well respected writer and entertainer loved by her peers and the public alike.

As well as her mental illness she was also plagued with physical ill health.  After a serious of accidents resulting in various fractures she was diagnosed with osteoporosis, which is often referred to as a softening of the bones.   

This dreadful illness left her with little or no mobility and she was confined to bed.  Lillian co-operated with the staff as best she could taking into consideration her mental condition but often when she was going through a manic phase she would jump out of bed and in the process sustain further bone fractures.  Towards the end of her life she must have suffered great torment both physical and mental.

Excerpt from a letter writer by the hospital’s Medical Superintendent two days after Lillian’s death:  

“In the middle of the night of the 6th of October last Mrs Cassidy jumped out of bed and before the night nurse should reach her, attempted to walk.  The thigh bone of her right leg and both bones of her left lower leg immediately “snapped” and she fell against the side of the bed causing further fractures of a rib and the upper arm bone of the right side.  From that date until her death, she gradually deteriorated in physical health and the fractures did not unite properly.”  

Lillian died on the 2nd of December 1944 in Storthes Hall, Psychiatric Hospital, Huddersfield.  The only possessions she had left that gave some clue to her previous existence were, her fur cape, a gold ring (with stones missing) and her costume coat.  She also had some sketches and paintings.  Such a sad and tragic end to the life of a very colourful and gifted lady.