W. H. KENDAL.
Age 21. Age 30. Age 40. Present Day.
From Photographs.
R. W. H. KENDAL (William Hunter Grimstone) made his first bow to a theatrical audience when he was eighteen years of age, at the little Royalty Theatre in Soho, and afterwards migrated to the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, where for five years he went through his apprenticeship, gaining experience in the company of most of the leading actors and actresses of the day. That useful engagement ended, he made what is called his professional London début at the Haymarket Theatre, making a leap to the front ten months afterwards by his performance, at the same theatre, of Orlando in "As You Like It." The professional association of his name with that of his wife is inevitable, because it was in association with her that he achieved his greatest successes, notably in such plays as "Uncle's Will," "Pygmalion and Galatea," and "The Wicked World." In 1875 he went to the Court Theatre under the management of Mr. Hare, and a year afterwards, at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, made a remarkable success as Captain Beauclerc in "Diplomacy." In this success he was associated with Mr. Bancroft and the late Mr. John Clayton, and the celebrated scène des trois hommes became the talk of the town. A long engagement at the Court Theatre followed, and then Mr. Hare and the Kendals joined business forces at the St. James's Theatre, a partnership which afforded so much delight to the public that there was a general expression of regret when it was broken.
