Early years Thomas was born in
Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, the eldest of the three children of Walter Thomas (d. 1878), a bootseller, and his wife, Hannah,
née Morris. He was educated at the
Liverpool Institute and later at a private school in
Prescot,
Lancashire. At the age of 14, he enlisted in the
Royal Marines but was bought out after six weeks and apprenticed to a shipbuilder. He learned bookkeeping and 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. Thomas augmented his salary with occasional journalism;
The Times noted that at 17 he published "a striking pamphlet" attacking the hymn-writers
Moody and Sankey. Through the influence of a local businessman,
Albert Rollit, he secured an engagement with
William and
Madge Kendal at the
Court Theatre in London.
Early stage career In addition to playing small parts, Thomas continued to write, and the Kendals accepted his play
Comrades for production after it was revised by
B. C. Stephenson. This "new and critical comedy" opened at the Court in 1882, 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, Thomas 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 to appear in supporting roles. He first attracted significant attention in
Sweet Lavender by
Arthur Wing Pinero. As a character actor, Thomas 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?" Penley produced the play and took the star role of Lord Fancourt Babberley, an undergraduate whose friends Jack and Charley persuade him to impersonate the latter's aunt. The early performances of the play were given on tour in the English provinces, beginning at
Bury St Edmunds on 29 February 1892. The piece was successfully staged throughout the English-speaking world and, in translation, in many other countries. In 1894, it was given both German and French premieres and was produced in Berlin every Christmas for many years. In 1895,
The Theatre recorded that ''Charley's Aunt'' had been taken up in country after country. "From Germany it made its way to Russia, Holland, Denmark and Norway, and was heartily welcomed everywhere." Thereafter, it was frequently revived for decades and successfully adapted for films and musicals. Thomas's career as a character actor continued to prosper. 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. In 1895, he starred in a revival of
The Rivals in another dialect role, Sir Lucius O'Trigger.
Bernard Shaw wrote that Thomas succeeded in the part, "mainly by not doing what is expected of him". Other parts in which Thomas attracted praise were the Pope in
Hall Caine's
The Eternal City (1902) and John of Gaunt in
Richard II to the King Richard of
Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1903). He was also well known as an author and singer of "
coon songs". Thomas died at his home in
Bloomsbury, London, in 1914, aged 65, after a brief illness. He was buried in
Brompton Cemetery. In its obituary notice,
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.''" ==Notes and references==