Stroud was born in
Margate, Kent, and brought up at
Pegwell Bay, near
Ramsgate. He studied singing in London under
Albert Visetti, and was coached in opera by the conductor
Albert Coates. He had a career on the concert platform, appearing at the Boosey Ballad concerts, and Queen's Hall orchestral concerts, and was engaged by
Robert Courtneidge in musical comedy. He enlisted with the Royal Navy during the Great War, engaged in submarine hunting. He sang in the chorus of
A Country Girl at
Daly's Theatre. Before he left for Australia he was singing with the Harrison concert party, a violin, 'cello, and piano combination. In 1920 Stroud was contracted by
Robert Greig of Australia's
Tivoli circuit to play in
The Lilac Domino in that country. The revues
Oddments and
Bran Pie followed, then the musicals
Maggie and
Chu Chin Chow as Nur-al-Din, making a "Ton of Money" for
Hugh D. McIntosh. It was good business for Stroud too, as his success made news in London and he was booked for the musical
Sally soon after his return. After
Sally, at the Winter Garden Theatre, came
Pablo Luna's
The First Kiss at the
New Oxford Theatre,
Katja, the Dancer and others. He joined the
D'Oyly Carte organization, first in the New Opera Company, then with their Repertory Opera Company at the Princes Theatre for the London season, playing Archibald Grosvenor in
Patience, Giuseppe in
The Gondoliers, Strephon in
Iolanthe, and Florian in
Princess Ida. He left D'Oyly Carte in December 1926. He appeared in other operettas: as Harry Sherwood in
Dorothy, and Franz von Schober in
Lilac Time. The Australian season ended at Adelaide in May 1933, and the company left for South Africa; they returned in April 1935 The season ended in May 1937 in Melbourne, with
Iolanthe, followed by
The Chocolate Soldier, Stroud playing Bumerli, which, though written for a
tenor, had already been successfully played by baritones
Leslie Gaze and
C. H. Workman. He returned to England, where he won the part of Pish Tush in the
film version of The Mikado. He had a minor role in the comedy/thriller
Q Planes starring
Laurence Olivier and
Ralph Richardson. His stage appearances included
Beatrix Thomson's
Sons of Adam in March 1939.
Night Birds, as Dr Falke;
The Maid of the Mountains, as Beppo; and a minor role in
The Merry Widow, both starring
Gladys Moncrieff, also troop concerts and charity functions, in the intervening years. His last Gilbert and Sullivan season began in Brisbane in July 1944 at
His Majesty's Theatre, with
The Gondoliers,
The Pirates of Penzance,
The Yeomen of the Guard, and
The Mikado, followed by Melbourne with
The Gondoliers,
The Pirates of Penzance,
Patience,
Iolanthe,
HMS Pinafore,
Ruddigore,
Princess Ida,
The Mikado and
Gondoliers again.
The Desert Song rounded off the Melbourne season, with Stroud's playing Baldassare, the brigand chief. The
Desert Song season, and Stroud's professional career, ended farcically when Stroud and Gladys Moncrieff stepped forward to take a bow, and a piece of scenery fell on them, though neither was hurt. In 1946 Stroud and Alex H. Doig took the lease of "Hollywood Pleasure Grounds" in
Cabra-vale for five years at £10 per week. From around 1948 Doig was sole lessee. Stroud maintained a presence in the Sydney suburb of
Fairfield as guest vocalist and master of ceremonies at public functions. His association with Gilbert and Sullivan was not over: in 1955 he acted as producer for the Sydney Musical Society's production of
Iolanthe, Later that year he produced
The Yeomen of the Guard for the
Muswellbrook branch of the
Arts Council. From the mid-1950s until the late 1960s he produced annual Gilbert and Sullivan musicals for the local Arts Council in Tamworth. ==Television==