Charlotte Saunders
(1825-1899)
as 'William Tell'

The actress Charlotte Saunders is seen here dressed as William Tell in Francis Talfourd's Tell and the Strike of the Cantons, Or, The Pair, the Meddler, and the Apple! Billed as 'An Original Fairy Romantic & Legendary Extravaganza,' the production ran at the Strand Theatre from 26 December 1859 to the end of March 1860.

Miss Saunders was an extremely well known and popular actress and singer who first appeared on the stage in 1833. In the mid-1850s she was with Frederick Robson in Dublin. For many years she was one of the stars at the Strand Theatre.

Her death at Kettering on 31 March 1899 was reported in the Pall Mall Gazette (5 April 1899): 'To the present generation of playgoers her name means nothing; to those of the Fifties and Sixties it was familiar as a household word. Most particularly was she identified with the bright band of burlesque actors and actresses for whom H. J. Byron wrote and whose home was that little temple of mirth, the Strand Theatre. Although the end has come to Miss Saunders in obscurity, she will never be forgotten as long as any of her generation survive who remember burlesque as it used to be in the days when it had not yet become a variety show.'

A lenghty obituary in The Stage (6 April 1899) listed many of her better known roles.