Alfred Wigan
(1814-1878)

Alfred Wigan was an actor, a playwright, a writer of farces and comedies, and a theatre manager. He was successively the manager of the Olympic, the St James's Theatre and, lastly, the Queen's Theatre in Long Acre, which opened in 1867.

In 1841 he married the actress Leonora Pincott. As Mrs Alfred Wigan she appeared in comedies and farces at Drury Lane, the Lyceum, the Olympic and the Queen's Theatre. The Wigans retired in 1872.

Alfred Sidney Wigan 'formerly of Campden Hill Kensington but late of 33 Brompton-square both in the County of Middlesex' died on 29 November 1878 at Folkestone in Kent. He left an estate valued at £2000.

Towards the end of the century, the great criminal lawyer Montagu Williams published his memoirs; in Chapter VIII he reminisced about the London theatre scene of his youth. Of Charles Wigan he wrote: 'Wigan was one of the most accomplished men I ever met. He was a magnificent fencer and a masterly swordsman. He spoke French with the accent of a Parisian, he was tolerably well acquainted with every other modern language, and he was the most delightful and amusing of companions, being an excellent conversationalist and possessing one of the most pleasant and musical voices I have ever heard' (Leaves of a Life, 1890).