Lena Ashwell

Lena Ashwell (born Sept. 28, 1872, on board ship in the River Tyne, Eng.—died March 13, 1957, London) was a British actress and theatrical manager well known for her work in organizing entertainment for the troops at the front during World War I. In 1917, she was awarded the Order of the British Empire.

Reared and educated in Canada, Ashwell studied music at Lausanne, Switz., and at the Royal Academy of Music, London. Her voice proved inadequate, however, and she turned to the stage in 1892. She established her reputation as an actress in Henry Arthur Jones’s Mrs. Dane’s Defence in 1900. Other notable successes were in a 1903 production of The Darling of the Gods and Leah Kleschna in 1905. She leased the Kingsway Theatre, London, from 1907 to 1915, after which she began organizing companies of entertainers for the troops in World War I. After the war she formed the Once-a-Week Players, later known as the Lena Ashwell Players, and produced drama at the Century Theatre, London, from 1924 to 1929. In 1936 she published her autobiography, Myself a Player.