Johnson, Dorothy

Biographical notes:

Dorothy Louise Hartnup (1909-1966) was born on 14 Aug 1909 and was later adopted. She knew nothing of her natural parents. She was brought up in Battersea by her adopted parents John Bishop and Dorothy Louise Hartnup (ne Wood). Her adopted father was a barber and master wig-maker, running his own hairdressing shop in the Queenstown Road. She was educated at a convent school in Clapham, and married twice. Her second marriage was to George James Johnson, artist and civil servant, in 1936. They had one son, born in 1940.

She was actively involved in amateur dramatics and singing, with much of her activities centring on the Parents’ Association attached to local scout groups to which her son belonged. She had a keen interest in theatre history, particularly in the actor managers Edward Edwards and John Lawrence Toole. Her most productive period of research was from c 1953-c 1957. She died in Thornton Heath on 5 Oct 1966.

John Lawrence Toole (1830-1906), actor and theatrical manager, was born in St. Mary Axe, London as the son of James Toole, City Toast Master and employee of the East India Company. Toole was educated at the City of London School and worked briefly in a wine merchant’s counting house. He then joined the City Histrionic Club and made his first public appearance at the Haymarket Theatre. He made his professional debut at the Queen’s Theatre, Dublin, 1852, under Charles Dillon, moving onto the St. James’s Theatre, London, the Lyceum, and the New Adelphi Theatre. After a successful acting career, he opened the Globe Theatre, London, in 1877. In 1895 he then opened the Folly Theatre on King William Street, Strand, in 1879 (renamed Toole’s Theatre, 1882) which he ran until 1895. He died in Brighton in 1906.

From the guide to the Papers of Dorothy Johnson, 1840s-1960s, (University of Exeter)