Oswald Stoll

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Sir Oswald Stoll (20 January 1866 – 9 January 1942) was a British theatre manager and the co-founder of the Stoll Moss Group theatre empire.

Born in Melbourne, Australia as Oswald Gray, Stoll moved to England with his mother after the death of his father. When his mother re-married, he took his step-father's last name. At a young age, he left school to help his mother run first the Parthenon music hall in Liverpool, and later a regional theatre company.

The company was a success, and Stoll began to buy or build city theatres. The theatre business made Stoll a wealthy man, and in 1898 he merged his business with that Edward Moss, one of his competitors to form Moss Empires. By 1905, almost every large town in Great Britain had an "Empire" or a "Coliseum" theatre, run by Stoll.

Stoll was a philanthropist who, among other things, donated the land in 1916 for Stoll Mansions, a centre for disabled soldiers and those who care for them. The Sir Oswald Stoll foundation continues to house disabled ex-service men and women to this day, as well as homeless ex-service personnel.

Stoll died at his home in Putney.

Stoll married twice. He married his first wife, Harriet Lewis, in 1892, and they had one daughter. Harriet died in 1902, and Stoll married Millicent Shaw the following year. Oswald and Millicent Stoll had three sons.

Stoll was knighted by King George V in 1919.