Moore, Decima (1871–1964)

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Moore, Decima (1871–1964)

English actress and singer. Name variations: Lady Moore-Guggisberg; Lady Guggisberg. Born Lilian Decima Moore, Dec 11, 1871, in Brighton, Sussex, England; died Feb 18, 1964, in Kensington, England; dau. of Emily (Strachan) Moore and Edmund Henry Moore; sister of Bertha Moore, Jessie Moore (actress and singer), Eva Moore (actress); aunt of Jill Esmond (actress); m. Cecil Ainslie Walker-Leigh (actor), 1894 (div. 1901); m. Sir F. Gordon Guggisberg (governor of British Guiana), 1905 (died 1930).

Created role of Casilda in The Gondoliers (1889), then appeared as Polly in Captain Billy, before leaving the Savoy; then appeared in Miss Decima, A Pantomime Rehearsal, The Maelstrom, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, The Wedding Eve, The White Silk Dress and Dorothy (title role); accompanied 2nd husband to West Africa (1905); toured Australia and America. Named Commander of the British Empire (CBE, 1918), for services in founding and running a military services' leave club in Paris during WWI.

See also memoir (written with husband) We Two in West Africa (Heinemann, 1909).

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