On 2 February 1910 the English musical comedy actor Tom Kirby Walls aka Tom Walls married in Lambeth, London to actress Alice Hilda Edwards. Two days later, on 4 February the couple had embarked the Orient liner Orsova, together with other performers, for engagements in Australasia. The Orsova arrived in Fremantle on Tuesday 8 March and in Melbourne on Monday 14 March where they disembarked.
Postcard. Author’s Collection.
CLARKE AND MEYNELL’S NEW COMPANY.
FREMANTLE, Tuesday.
On board the R.M.S. Orsova, which arrived to-day, was Mr. St. John Denton, representing Messrs. Clarke and Meynell, who is returning to Australia with the members of a new company. On being interviewed he said that the repertoire of the company included “The Arcadians,” “The Gay Gordons,” “The Belle of Brittany,” “Tom Jones,” “Captain Kidd,” and the pantomime “Dick Whittington,” which will be produced at Christmas tlme. The members of the company are Miss Mal Sydney, a Sydney girl with a high soprano voice, who met with great success In London; Miss Constance Tait, a soprano; Tom Walls, Charles Stone, a light comedian, Percy Clifton, Arthur Edwards, Miss Lily Cavanagh, Miss Ethel Forsyth, a very handsome girl, Miss Cecille Callcott, Miss May Edwards, and Miss Lena Denton.
Star (Sydney, NSW : 1909 – 1910), Tuesday 8 March 1910, page 5
Photographic postcard. Author’s collection.
On completion of their New Zealand season, Tom and Hilda Walls, together with the other Meynell Company members, were passengers aboard the SS Wimmera when it departed Auckland on 4 September 1911. They arrived in Sydney on 8 September.
At the end of their Australasian tour Tom and Hilda Walls were once again First Class passengers aboard the Orient Line’s Orsova. They departed from Fremantle for Plymouth where they disembarked early in December 1911.
SS Wimmera 