William Akhurst

William Mower Akhurst (1822–1878) was an Australian colonial actor, journalist and playwright.[1]

Akhurst was born in Hammersmith, London, on 29 December 1822, and went to Melbourne, Australia, in 1850. Here he joined the Melbourne Argus as sub-editor and musical critic. Subsequently, he wrote fourteen pantomimes, one of his burlesques, the Siege of Troy, running for sixty nights. In 1870, he returned to England, and wrote pantomimes for Astley's, the Pavilion, and the Elephant and Castle Theatres. He died on board the Patriarch, on the return voyage to Sydney, on 7 June 1878.[2][3]

Works
  • 1866 The happy delivery of a legal lady in Jolop Street East[4]
  • 1866 Gulliver on his travels, or Harlequin Old Father Christmas.[5]
  • 1868 King Arthur, or Lancelot the loose.

References
  1. William Wilde, Joy Hooton & Barry Andrews, The Oxford companion to Australian literature, OUP, Melbourne, 1986, p. 20.
  2. Mennell, Philip (1892). "Akhurst, William" . The Dictionary of Australasian Biography. London: Hutchinson & Co – via Wikisource.
  3. "Death of William Mower Akhurst". South Australian Advertiser. Adelaide, S.A. 22 August 1878. p. 5. Retrieved 5 September 2010.
  4. http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/42644567
  5. E. Morris Miller & Frederick T. Macartney, Australian Literature, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1956, p. 33.


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