| Collection | Vera Mulholland Collection |
| Description | Personal material of Vera Mulholland. Includes cuttings about Vera and her work, photographs, certificates, material related to her presentation at court, correspondence, ephemera, membership documents, a diary from 1929, ticket stubs and copies of Vera's caricatures of performers.
2 large facsimilie caricatures and one print are stored seperately. |
| Admin history | Vera Mulholland was born in 1900, eldest daughter of theatre owner and entrepreneur J.B. Mulholland and his second wife, Aimee Mulholland. She was an opera singer (making her debut in 1926), performer and caricaturist. In October 1930 she performed in a radio production of Madame Butterfly, playing the role of Kate Pinkerton. During her life she lived in Putney, Wimbledon and in a house known as 'The Wigwam' in Birchington, Kent. Vera never married and had no children. Vera died in 1999.
John Brennan (J.B.) Mulholland born 11 November 1858 Ballydullaghan townland near Garvagh. He married his first wife, actress Annette Jane Armitage (stage name Annette Nunn), in 1890 in Nottingham, England. They lived for a time in Radford, Nottinghamshire with Annette’s two nephews and with one servant. Annette died 1896 in Camberwell, London & was buried in Nottingham.
By 1901 J.B. Mulholland had married his second wife, Aimee (born in Ireland c.1879) and was living in Camberwell with their daughter Vera (Kathleen Mulholland - then aged 5 months) and two servants. They later had 4 more children, three of whom survived (John Victor Mulholland (1901-1984); Aimee Joan Mulholland (1902-1995); Nora Mulholland (c1907-[????]).
J.B. Mulholland built the New Wimbledon Theatre between 1908 and 1910, opening with a pantomime production of Jack and Jill on Boxing Day 1910. At the time he also owned the King's Theatre in Hammersmith and had previously owned the Theatre Metropole in Camberwell in the 1890's. The local council bought the New Wimbledon from the Mulholland family in the 1960s.
J.B. Mulholland died in a London nursing home on 2nd June 1925 after an appendix operation and was buried in Putney Vale Cemetery. Aimee Louise Mulholland died on 1st May 1945 in Surrey. |