Greatheed, Bertie, 1759-1826

Wrote "The Regent" and opened it at Drury Lane Theatre on 1 April 1788, supported by John Kemble and Mrs. Siddons. After nine nights, the play was closed. Greatheed later published the play and dedicated it to Mrs. Siddons.

Bertie Greatheed, the son of Samuel Greatheed of Guy's Cliff, MP for Coventry, and Lady Mary Bertie, was born on October 17, 1759. He was raised at Guy's Cliff, and there met the actress Sarah Siddons when she was employed by his mother in 1771-73.

While living in Florence, Greatheed joined the society "Gli Oziosi" (The Idlers) and contributed to their privately published Arno Miscellany (1784). In 1785 he was one of the major contributors to the Della Cruscan Florence Miscellany, with Robert Merry, William Parsons, and Mrs. Piozzi.

In 1788, his blank verse tragedy, The Regent, was staged at Drury Lane Theatre, with his friend Sarah Siddons and John Kemble in the lead roles, but the play failed and was withdrawn after only nine nights.

The Greatheed family was in Paris in 1802-1803, during the Peace of Amiens; Bertie Bertie Greatheed, his son, received permission from Napoleon to draw many of the art treasures which had been brought to the Louvre. The Greatheeds journeyed to Italy in 1804, where Bertie Bertie Greatheed died in October, at Vicenza. His drawings were returned to his father by Napoleon on learning of the son's death.

Greatheed spent much time and money on improvements to Guy's Cliff, and designed the house's Elizabethan Revival additions and the memorial to the execution of Piers Gaveston on Blacklow Hill. He also acquired a considerable collection of Old Master paintings, including works attributed to Canaletto, Caravaggio, Salvator Rosa, Lely, and Reynolds.

Greatheed's only child, Bertie Bertie, had married in France before his early death, and in 1823 his daughter Anne Caroline Greatheed married Lord Charles Percy, who took the surname Greatheed Bertie Percy. Bertie Greatheed died at Guy's Cliff on January 16, 1826.