Gladys Moncrieff AUTOGRAPHED

GLADYS MONCRIEFF OBE
1892 – 1976
Australian Soprano
Moncieff was so successful in musical theatre and that she became known as 'Australia's Queen of Song' and 'Our Glad'.
Her first stage performance was at the age of six at the Queen's Theatre in Bundaberg, where she sang the American folk song "The Merriest Girl That's Out" with her father accompanying on piano.] She performed in Gilbert and Sullivan productions.Moncrieff toured South Africa and New Zealand as a leading lady in numerous productions. When she returned to Australia she landed her most famous role as Teresa in Harold Fraser-Simson's light opera The Maid of the Mountains, which she first performed in Melbourne in 1921.The waltz song "Love Will Find a Way" became particularly associated with her. The Maid was to become the most frequently revived musical of the Australian stage, and Moncrieff appeared in it some 2,800 times. She also was a success in A Southern Maid in 1923. She returned to perform in musical comedy, and was engaged to entertain Australian troops fighting in the Second World War at home and in New Guinea, and she became very active raising funds for war-related charities. In 1951 she toured Japan and Korea to entertain British and Australian occupation forces. For her wartime contributions, she was created an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1952.

She continued her stage and radio work, and during 1958 and 1959 began her farewell stage tour of Australia and New Zealand. Her final stage appearance was at Hamilton, New Zealand, and her last public performance was in a televised concert in Brisbane in 1962. She retired to the Gold Coast in 1968