Nancy Price
Born	Lilian Nancy Bache Price (1880-02-03)3 February 1880 Kinver, Staffordshire, England, UK
Died	31 March 1970(1970-03-31) (aged 90) Findon, Sussex, England, UK
Occupations	Actress author theatre director theatre founder
Spouse	Charles Maude ​ ​ (m. 1907; died 1943)​

Nancy Price,CBE (3 February 1880 – 31 March 1970) was an Englishactress on stage and screen,author,animal welfare activist andtheatre director. Her acting career began in arepertory theatre company before progressing to the London stage, silent films,talkies and finally television. In addition to appearing on stage she became involved in theatre production and was a founder of the People's National Theatre.

ChristenedLilian Nancy Bache Price inKinver, Staffordshire, England, in 1880, Nancy was the daughter of William Henry Price (a retired farmer) and Sarah Mannix. Her mother was the granddaughter of Sir Henry Mannix. After schooling in her home village and then in nearbyMalvern Wells she decided at an early age to become an actress. She married the actor Charles Maude on 17 May 1907, and they were together until his death in 1943. They had two daughtersJoan Maude and Elizabeth Maude. Joan, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's daughterJennifer Phipps all went on to become actresses.^[1] Soon after Charles and Nancy's daughters were born, they made the village ofFindon in Sussex her home, living in a cottage called "Arcana" in Heather Lane on theDowns.^[2]

She wrote many books, including her autobiography,Into an Hour-Glass (1953). At one time she managed the "Little Theatre" in the Adelphi, off the Strand.

Findon remained her home until her death in 1970.

Price was an advocate ofanimal welfare and co-founded theCouncil of Justice to Animals in 1911.^[3][4] Price became avegetarian in the 1920s after an experience at a walking tour in the fens. She became lost in a fog and credited the local sheep as saving her life by offering her protection and keeping her warm.^[5] Price was president of the Sussex Vegetarian Society and lectured on vegetarianism inWorthing.^[6] In 1951, at a vegetarian public meeting she argued that more people would turn to vegetarianism if they visited a slaughterhouse. She suggested that vegetarian restaurants should be publicized more.^[7]

In 1937, Price denounced the use ofgin traps on rabbits as "barbarous cruelty" and a "savage instrument of torture".^[8] Price authored a book on dogs,Tails and Tales, published in 1945. The anthology is made up of facts about dogs taken from many sources.^[9] In 1949, she funded the creation of a "Warrior Birds" memorial stone atBeach House Park to commemoratewar pigeons who gave their lives in service duringWorld War II.^[4][10][11]

Price was concerned about rabbits suffering frommyxomatosis.^[12] In 1954, Price supported a petition urging the Government to pass a new law making delibrate spreading of myxomatosis an offence. The petition gained support from theRSPCA and animal lovers in Worthing.^[12] In 1963, Price campaigned against the carelessringing of young birds by ornithologists. She commented that the metal often damaged the legs of small birds and suggested legislation to prevent unqualified people from bird ringing.^[13] She was an opponent ofblood sports and attended meetings of theLeague Against Cruel Sports Worthing branch.^[14][15]

Price was an anti-vivisectionist. She was a speaker at the annual meeting of theNational Anti-Vivisection Society in 1939.^[16][17] She was president of the Richmond and Twickenham branch of theBritish Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) in 1944.^[18]Price was president of the Storrington and district branch of the BUAV in 1954.^[19] She stated that "if people could see inside a vivisector's chamber and see what was going on they would be horrified".^[20]

Nancy joinedF.R. Benson's theatre company whilst still at school. The company specialised inShakespeare's plays and toured extensively in the provinces. Her first big break came when she caught the attention ofSir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who cast her as Calypso inStephen Phillips's production ofUlysses atHer Majesty's Theatre, London in 1902, a role in which she enjoyed great success.^[21] The part of Hilda Gunning was written for her byArthur Wing Pinero inLetty (1904),^[22] a role in which the theatre criticJ. T. Grein said: "In Letty, while others enhanced their fame, Miss Nancy Price, in the part of Hilda, the shop-girl, made her name. If we read the character aright, Miss Price realised it well-nigh to perfection".^[23] In 1909 she appeared as Mrs. D'Aquila inGeorge Dance's production ofThe Whip at theTheatre Royal, Drury Lane. She joinedEdith Craig's Pioneer Players at theKingsway Theatre in 1911 for a performance ofChristopher St. John'sThe First Actress. In March 1912, she appeared as India inSir Edward Elgar's Imperial MasqueThe Crown of India at theLondon Coliseum.

Together with the Dutch-born theatre impresarioJ.T. Grein, Nancy Price founded thePeople's National Theatre in 1930. Their first production wasThe Man from Blankleys byF. Anstey at theFortune Theatre.^[24] When Grein left the company Nancy became its honorary director, and in 1932 a permanent home was found at theLittle Theatre in the Adelphi with Nancy as manager. The enterprise came to an end with the destruction of the theatre in 1941.^[25] During this period, Nancy established the English School Theatre Movement, which toured productions of Shakespeare plays toworking class children.^[26]

In the1950 King's Birthday Honours, Nancy was awarded aCBE for services to the stage.^[27] In the same year, she gave her final stage performance as Martha Blanchard in the play she co-wrote with Eden Phillpotts,The Orange Orchard, at the New Lindsey Theatre.^[28]

Having established herself as a stage actress in London's West End, Nancy's first film role was in the black and white, silent filmThe Lyons Mail. In the next decade she appeared in a further eight silent films before her first "talkie",The American Prisoner, which was recorded in mono sound in 1929. The last silent film in which she appearedThe Price of Divorce was adapted by producerOswald Mitchell to incorporate sound and released under the nameSuch is the Law.

• Whiteoaks: A Play (WithMazo de la Roche, Macmillan, 1936)
• The Orange Orchard (WithEden Phillpotts, London: Samuel French, 1951)

• Hurdy-Gurdy (London : Frederick Muller, 1944)

• Ta-mera (London : Hutchinson & Co., 1950)

• Behind the Night-Light: the by-world of a child of three. Described byJoan Maude and faithfully recorded by Nancy Price (London : John Murray, 1912)
• Vagabond's Way. Haphazard wanderings on the fells ... With illustrations byA.S. Hartrick (London : John Murray, 1914)
• Shadows on the Hills, etc. On the English Lake District. With plates (London : Victor Gollancz, 1935)
• The Gull's Way. An account of a cruise along the East Coast of England (London : Victor Gollancz, 1937)
• Nettles and Docks, etc. Essays (London : G. Allen & Unwin, 1940)
• Jack by the Hedge, etc. Sketches of country life (London : Frederick Muller, 1942)
• I had a Comrade "Buddy" On the author's dog (London : G. Allen & Unwin, 1944)
• Tails and Tales. On dogs (London : Victor Gollancz, 1945)
• Where the Skies Unfold, etc. Essays (Birmingham : George Ronald, 1947)
• Wonder of Wings. A book about birds (London : Victor Gollancz, 1947)
• Acquainted with the Night. A book of dreams (Illustrated byMichael Rothenstein, Oxford : George Ronald, 1949)
• Bright Pinions. On parrots (Oxford : George Ronald, 1952)
• Feathered Outlaws (London & Worthing : Henry E. Walter, 1953)
• In Praise of Trees. An anthology for friends (London : Frederick Muller, 1953)
• Into an Hour-Glass. An autobiography (London : Museum Press, 1953)
• Pagan's Progress. High days and holy days (London : Museum Press, 1954)
• The Heart of a Vagabond. On country life in Sussex (London : Museum Press, 1955)
• I watch and listen. A book mainly concerned with the courtship and song of birds (London : Bodley Head, 1957)
• Winged Builders. A book of bird lore, chiefly concerned with the nesting, building and family habits of British birds (London : George Ronald, 1959)
• Each in his own way! Personalities I have valued, selected from my album of memories ... Woodcuts by William Wood (London : Frederick Muller, 1960)

• Nancy Price at IMDb
• Photos of Nancy Price
• Little Theatre in the Adelphi
• Nancy playing banjo
• Tribute to Warrior birds commissioned by Nancy Price
• British Pathe newsreel film featuring Nancy Price
• Photograph of Nancy Price as Mrs. D'Acquilar in The Whip

• 1880 births
• 1970 deaths
• 20th-century English actresses
• 20th-century English diarists
• 20th-century English women writers
• 20th-century English novelists
• 20th-century English poets
• 20th-century English dramatists and playwrights
• 20th-century English essayists
• Actresses from Staffordshire
• Actors from Arun District
• Actresses from West Sussex
• Anti-hunting activists
• Dog writers
• English animal welfare workers
• English anti-vivisectionists
• English film actresses
• English silent film actresses
• English stage actresses
• English television actresses
• English vegetarianism activists
• English women activists
• English women novelists
• English women poets
• Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
• English theatre directors
• British women theatre directors
• British women memoirists
• English women diarists
• English women non-fiction writers
• People from Findon, West Sussex
• People from Kinver
• 20th-century British women novelists

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