Barbara Deane was the stage name of Kate Blanche Davies, born on 20^th February 1886 In Pembroke Dock. From a working class family of shipwrights, she lived at 7 Lewis Street; a modest terraced house in the town. However, by the age of seventeen, she was starring in ‘The Cherry Girl’, a musical comedy in London’s West End.

Kate’s journey to stardom is somewhat of a mystery. Writer Steve Bartlett speculates that she ‘possibly gained a singing scholarship in Winchester’ as the 1906 theatrical trade directory, The Green Room, describes Barbara Deane as ‘educated Winchester’.

Barbara’s first show ran from 21^st December 1903 to 25^th June 1904 at the Vaudeville Theatre, and by 1906 she was described as ‘a protégé of Miss Ellaline Terriss (a popular actress of Edwardian stage and screen)…she has one of the most beautiful voices on the London stage and is without question one of the most promising of the younger artists’. Her next show ‘The Catch of the Season’ was equally successful and Barbara subsequently toured the North of England before travelling to America in the Autumn of 1905.

During this period she played in ‘Bluebell’ at the Aldwych Theatre and took part in a charity concert at the Princess Theatre, Bristol in February 1906. Later that year she also starred in the musical comedy ‘The Beauty of Bath’ where she fell down the stairs while on stage, which is said to have ‘endured her to the audience and ensured her success’.

During this triumphant period with a voice described as ‘of exceptional quality and compass’ and her beauty ensuring she became a ‘picture postcard favourite’, Barbara suddenly disappeared from the theatre. Mid-way through a run in September 1907, she left to marry Lieutenant Basil Loder of the Scots Guards and their first child was born eleven months later.

At this point, aged just 21, Kate Loder (as she was now known), was living in West London and employed several servants, nurses and nannies for her children. From the time she was married until 1929, the family moved around ‘fashionable London’, before presumably separating. During the 1920s, Barbara Deane returned to the stage, initially appearing in Ivor Novello’s ‘Our Nell’.

Following a second series of successful plays and the subsequent death of her husband, Barbara Deane reunited with director Seymour Hicks and travelled to South Africa on a theatrical tour in 1936. Now aged 50, she continued touring, travelling first class to Ceylon and on the ‘Queen Mary’ to New York.

Katie Davies aka Barbara Deane, died in Sloane Avenue, London on 16^th April 1957, aged 71 years.

Barbara Deane oedd enw llwyfan Kate Blanche Davies, a aned ar yr 20^fed o Chwefror 1886 yn Noc Penfro. O deulu dosbarth gweithiol o adeiladwyr llongau, bu’n byw yn 7 Lewis Street, tŷ teras cyffredin yn y dref. Fodd bynnag, erbyn iddi fod yn un ar bymtheg oed, roedd hi’n serennu yn y ‘Cherry Girl’, comedi gerddorol yn y West End yn Llundain.

Mae taith Kate i fod yn seren y llwyfan yn ddirgelwch braidd. Mae’r awdur Steve Bartlett yn dyfalu ei bod ‘o bosibl wedi ennill ysgoloriaeth ganu yng Nghaerwynt’ gan fod cyfeiriadur masnach theatrig 1906, The Green Room, yn disgrifio Barbara Deane fel gwraig ‘a addysgwyd yng Nghaerwynt’.

Roedd sioe gyntaf Barbara wedi rhedeg o Ragfyr 21 1903 i Fehefin 25 1904 yn Theatr Vaudeville, ac erbyn 1906 disgrifiwyd hi fel ‘protégé Miss Ellaline Terriss (actores boblogaidd ar lwyfan ac ar sgrîn yn y cyfnod Edwardaidd) … mae ganddi un o’r lleisiau mwyaf soniarus ar lwyfan Llundain a hi yn ddiamheuol yw un o’r mwyaf addawol o’r artistiaid iau’. Roedd ei sioe nesaf, ‘Catch of the Season’, yr un mor llwyddiannus, ac wedi hynny aeth Barbara ar daith o amgylch Gogledd Lloegr cyn teithio i America yn hydref 1905.

Yn ystod y cyfnod hwn cymerodd ran yn ‘Bluebell’ yn Theatr Aldwych a chymerodd ran mewn cyngerdd elusennol yn Theatr y Dywysoges, Bryste fis Chwefror 1906. Yn ddiweddarach y flwyddyn honno bu’n serennu yn y gomedi gerddorol ‘The Beauty of Bath’ lle syrthiodd i lawr y grisiau tra ar y llwyfan, a dywedir i hynny ‘wneud i’r gynulleidfa ymserchu ynddi a sicrhau ei llwyddiant’.

Yn ystod y cyfnod buddugoliaethus hwn gyda llais a ddisgrifiwyd fel ‘un o ansawdd ac amrediad eithriadol’ a’i harddwch oedd wedi sicrhau ei bod yn ‘ffefryn cerdyn post’, diflannodd Barbara yn sydyn o’r theatr. Hanner ffordd drwy sioe ym mis Medi 1907, gadawodd i briodi Is-gapten Basil Loder o Warchodlu’r Alban, a chafodd eu plentyn cyntaf ei eni un mis ar ddeg yn ddiweddarach.

Yr adeg hon, pan oedd ond yn 21 oed, roedd Kate Loder (fel y gelwid hi yn awr), yn byw yng Ngorllewin Llundain ac yn cyflogi nifer o weision, nyrsys a nanis i’w phlant. O’r adeg y priododd hi tan 1929, symudodd y teulu o gwmpas ‘Llundain ffasiynol’, cyn iddynt wahanu yn ôl pob sôn. Yn ystod y 1920au, dychwelodd Barbara Deane i’r llwyfan, gan ymddangos yn y lle cyntaf yn ‘Our Nell’ Ivor Novello. 

Yn dilyn ail gyfres o ddramâu llwyddiannus a marwolaeth ei gŵr wedi hynny, ail ymunodd Barbara Deane â’r cyfarwyddwr Seymour Hicks a theithio i Dde Affrica ar daith theatrig yn 1936. Yn 50 oed bellach, parhaodd i deithio, gan deithio dosbarth cyntaf i Ceylon ac ar y ‘Queen Mary’ i Efrog Newydd. 

Bu farw Katie Davies, a elwid hefyd yn Barbara Deane, yn Sloane Avenue, Llundain ar Ebrill 16 1957 yn 71 oed.