An Imagined Blue Plaque for Violet Farebrother

We are starting The Archive of Unmarked History to remember local people whose lives, achievements and sacrifices deserve to be remembered, but who may never have a physical plaque or memorial of their own. Real plaques are an important way of marking a place and remembering a person, but they are expensive, and funds cannot be found to put plaques everywhere they are deserved. There may also be other reasons why a physical plaque is not possible: a building may have disappeared, a location may have changed, permission may not be available, or there may simply be nowhere suitable for one. But the absence of a physical plaque should not mean that the person and their story are forgotten. A virtual plaque is better than no plaque at all.

Through this growing archive, the Grimsby & Cleethorpes Museum will create a permanent digital record of people whose stories might otherwise be overlooked. Each virtual plaque will tell their story and connect them with the places and communities where they lived and worked. The Archive of Unmarked History does not replace real plaques. Where a physical plaque is possible, that is wonderful. But where it isn't, we can still remember.

Violet Sutcliffe Farebrother (22 August 1888 – 27 September 1969) was a very successful actress born in Grimsby. She appeared in 25 films between 1911 and 1965, including three films directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Her theatre work began in 1907 when she was at RADA.

Violet Sutcliffe Farebrother was the daughter of the prominent Grimsby architect, Ernest William Robert Farebrother F.R.I.B.A. (born 1853 in Corby Glen, Lincs.) and Kate Farebrother (née Sutcliffe, born 1863, daughter of John Sutcliffe, shipping agent of The Manor House, Stallingborough). The couple married in 1885 and had three children, Francis Hughes Farebrother (1886-1980), Violet Sutcliffe Farebrother (1888) and Harcourt Sutcliffe Farebrother (1890-1916 injured Mesopotamia, died London). The Farebrother family lived at Corby House, Wellowgate, Grimsby, a house that Ernest designed for his family.

Ernest William Robert Farebrother died in 1891, aged just 38. Violet’s mother, Kate, married John Brooks-Wood in Grimsby in 1894. Violet went to live with her uncle, Tom Sutcliffe, at The Manor House, Stallingborough.

Violet was educated in Paris, at a convent in Florence and then her mother arranged for her to attend what became the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She worked with Sir Frank Benson’s Company, Fred Terry’s Company, the Julia Neilson Company and the Shakespeare Repertory. She also appeared on stage in the West End. In 1939, Violet, an unemployed actress, was living with her mother, a widow for the second time, at Monks Close, Woolpit, Suffolk (a Grade II Listed Building).

Violet came back to Grimsby on at least three occasions when she appeared on stage at the Prince of Wales Theatre, which her father designed. She became the patron of Grimsby’s Caxton Players in 1951.

Violet Sutcliffe Farebrother never married but she always wore a brass wedding ring she bought for a penny in c1910. Her hobbies included embroidery, reading and crosswords. She retired to the South Coast where she lived with her cousin, Flora Kathleen Waters (1893-1965, née Farebrother) at 49 Summerdown Road, Eastbourne, Sussex (still there today). Violet Sutcliffe Farebrother died on 27th September 1969. She was outlived by one of her brothers, Lt.-Col. Francis Hughes Farebrother who died in Hertfordshire in 1980, aged 93.

Research by Grimsby & Cleethorpes Museum.