Olga Nethersole

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Olga Isabel Nethersole CBE RRC (18639 January 1951) was an English actress, theatre producer and health educator.

She was born in London, of Spanish descent on her mother's side, and made her stage début at Brighton in 1887.

From 1888 she played important parts in London, at first under John Hare at the Garrick, and in 1894 took the Court Theatre on her own account.

She also toured in Australia and America, playing leading parts in modern plays, notably Clyde Fitch's Sapho (produced in London in 1902), which was strongly objected to in New York. Her powerful emotional acting, however, made a great effect in some other plays, such as Carmen, in which she again appeared in America in 1906.

She served as a nurse in London throughout World War I and later established the People's League of Health, for which she received the Royal Red Cross (RRC) in 1920. She combined her theatre work with health work for the rest of her life.

She was created a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1936.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.