34 Facts About Maud Jeffries

Maud Evelyn Craven Jeffries was an American actress.

Maud Jeffries married James Bunbury Nott Osborne, a wealthy Australian grazier, Boer war veteran, and former aide-de-camp to New Zealand's Governor-General.

Maud Jeffries left the stage in 1906, and continued to live a quiet, very happy life, devoted to her family and her beautifully designed gardens, on their family property, "Bowylie", at Gundaroo, NSW, until her death, at age 76, from cancer.

Maud Jeffries had three younger brothers: Henry, James K jnr.

In October 1887, when Maud Jeffries was just seventeen, she performed in Lizzie Evans's new play, Our Angel, at the New Memphis Theatre.

Maud Jeffries has youth, beauty, talent, a fine voice and striking presence.

Maud Jeffries's success was instantaneous, and the press were liberal in their commendation of her acting.

Miss Maud Jeffries: Illness Compels her Temporary Retirement from the Stage The promising dramatic career of Miss Maud Jeffries threatens to be abruptly terminated by an affection of the heart, which make her temporary retirement from a life of excitement imperative.

At the second rehearsal Miss Maud Jeffries succumbed to a nervous strain and fainted on the stage.

Maud Jeffries therefore determined to bid a long farewell to the boards and to seek to regain her health amid the reposeful associations and soothing influences of home.

Maud Jeffries left the United States on the RMS City of Chester on 6 August 1890, and arrived at Liverpool on 16 August 1890.

Maud Jeffries made her English debut, on 4 December 1890, in the play's first public performance: on the opening night of The New Olympic Theatre, in London's Drury Lane, an entirely new, purpose-built theatre, which Barrett managed.

Miss Maud Jeffries received an invitation to Mr Barrett's home, where a few friends had assembled, and after dinner, she was asked in a casual way to give the end of the second act of "Claudian".

Maud Jeffries was so utterly surprised at the proposition that she burst out sobbing and said she would not do it, for she not only felt incapable of accomplishing it successfully, but she did not believe in such "jumps".

Miss Maud Jeffries immediately cabled home to America, telling her parents that she was leaving England by the next ship.

Maud Jeffries was an outstanding success and, throughout the rest of her career, her performances as Desdemona were considered to be amongst her finest roles.

Maud Jeffries is excellent from the beginning, but here her excellence becomes remarkable.

Maud Jeffries was involved in the creation of Wilson Barrett's play The Sign of the Cross, which was originally produced at the Grand Opera House, St Louis, Missouri on 28 March 1895.

Maud Jeffries' performance was outstanding, and there were 10 minutes of curtain calls.

The first performance of the Knight-Maud Jeffries Company in its farewell New Zealand season was a "double bill" of Davy Garrick and Comedy and Tragedy at Christchurch's Theatre Royal on 22 November 1905.

Maud Jeffries performed in Christchurch, Dunedin, Wellington, Masterton, and Auckland, and its final performance was The Lady of Lyons, at Auckland's Her Majesty's Theatre, on Saturday, 17 February 1906.

The final performance of the Knight-Maud Jeffries Company was with The Lady of Lyons, in Sydney's Palace Theatre, on 16 March 1906.

Osborne as "the handsome and graceful actress, Miss Maud Jeffries", whilst another theatre critic still believed that her performances far outshone those of the current favourite-of-the-day, Melbourne born actress Madge Titheradge.

Maud Jeffries commanded the first troop of the 1st Australian Horse service squadron to be sent to South Africa.

Maud Jeffries was present at the Relief of Kimberley and, in March 1900, left the Australian Horse and took up a commission with the British 16th Lancers: the regiment of his elder brother, Second Lieutenant Edwin Francis Fitzroy Osborne, who had died four years earlier, of enteric fever, at Lucknow, on 2 September 1895.

Maud Jeffries was closely involved in the surrender of Bloemfontein in March 1900; and, in early May 1900, he contracted enteric fever.

Maud Jeffries was hospitalized in Bloemfontein; however, his condition did not respond to treatment, and he was invalided to England.

Maud Jeffries's service is commemorated on a plaque affixed to the Bungendore and District War Memorial.

Maud Jeffries remained on the "unattached list" until he formally resigned his commission in December 1904.

Maud Jeffries was interred at Waverley Cemetery, Sydney, along with the remains of his daughter Elizabeth Osborne.

In March 1906, Maud Jeffries retired from the stage and happily devoted herself to a rural life on their family property, "Bowylie", near Gundaroo, New South Wales.

Maud Jeffries's 1904 marriage produced two children: a son, James Bedford Jeffries Osborne, and a daughter, Elizabeth Osborne, born on 22 May 1911, who only lived for five weeks.

In 1904 it was reported that, even though payment was only six cents per copy, Maud Jeffries had made at least $US10,000 from royalties in less than two years.

Maud Jeffries was privately interred at Waverley Cemetery, Sydney, along with the remains of her daughter Elizabeth Osborne, and her late husband, James Bunbury Nott Osborne.