Decima Moore

Lilian Decima, Lady Moore-Guggisberg, CBE (11 December 1871 – 18 February 1964), better known by her stage name Decima Moore, was an English singer and actress, known for her performances in soprano roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and in musical comedies. She was the youngest of ten siblings (hence, the name "Decima"). Her sister, actress Eva Moore, was the mother of actress Jill Esmond, the first wife of Laurence Olivier.

Moore made her stage debut starring as Casilda in the Gilbert and Sullivan hit The Gondoliers in 1889 at the age of 17 and stayed with the company for two years. She then starred in a variety of West End theatre plays and musical pieces over the next two years, joining the George Edwardes company to create the ingénue role of Rose Brierly in the hit Edwardian musical comedy A Gaiety Girl in 1893. After touring with Edwardes's company in musicals, she returned to England and light opera later playing the role of Scent of Lilies in The Rose of Persia (1899) and starring in Florodora (1900–01) and My Lady Molly (1903), among other West End shows.

In 1905, Moore married Major (later Brigadier General) Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, moving with him to West Africa. Over the next decade, she frequently returned to England and also toured, mostly in legitimate theatre, as well as singing in concerts. In 1908, she was one of the founding members of the Actresses' Franchise League and became very active in the suffrage movement. Her last London stage appearance was in 1914. During World War I, Moore worked in France on behalf of British soldiers. In 1918 she was honoured with the CBE for her services to her country. Moore was active in charity work during her long retirement. She was the last surviving original creator of a Gilbert and Sullivan role.

Moore was born in Brighton, Sussex, the ninth daughter and tenth child of Edward Henry Moore, an analytical chemist, and his wife, Emily (née Strachan). Four of her sisters sang on the concert platform or the stage, including Jessie (1864–1910), Eva (1870–1955) and Bertha Moore.

She was educated at Miss Pringle's school and then Boswell House College, Brighton and sang in the church choir. After leaving school in 1887, she won the Victoria Scholarship to study singing at the Blackheath Conservatoire of Music. She then studied voice with Rose Hersee.

Moore intended to begin a concert career, but she made her debut at age 17 with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. There she created the leading role of Casilda in The Gondoliers, the last great Gilbert and Sullivan hit, which opened at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889. W. S. Gilbert asked her if she had ever acted. When she replied in the negative, he replied, "So much the better; you'll have less to unlearn!" She related her first-night experience:

I had to make my first entrance in a gondola, with my back to the audience; and when I turned round to get out of it and faced the house my feelings were such that I shall never forget. I had only been to about three theatres in my life, and, of course, had never seen an audience in evening dress from the stage. When I did see that audience... I felt a "catch" in the chest as if I had fallen into an ice-cold bath and it had taken away all my breath. I stuck my finger nails into my palms and said, "This won't do!" and walked down the stage, trying to remember all I had been told to do and not to do. I got through the evening in a kind of dream, wept all the way home in the hansom, convinced I had been a failure.

In fact, Moore earned good reviews. The Times wrote that she "has a delightfully fresh voice... she sings with very good taste and gives distinct promise of becoming a very acceptable actress; her appearance is extremely taking, and on the whole, a more successful début has not recently taken place". Her next role was Polly in Captain Billy (1891), the companion piece to The Nautch Girl. Her older sister, Jessie Moore, who sang with one of D'Oyly Carte's touring companies, replaced Decima in Captain Billy in November 1891.