Lilian Baylis

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Lilian Mary Baylis CH (9 May 1874–25 November 1937) was an English theatrical producer and manager and the founder of a ballet company.

Lilian Baylis was born in London, England. In 1898, she was called from South Africa to assist her aunt Emma Cons in running The Royal Victoria Hall and Coffee Tavern near Waterloo Station. Following Cons' death in 1912, she took over the management of the theatre, renaming it the "Old Vic" and going on to run it for the rest of her life. One of her finest achievements at the Old Vic was to produce a full cycle of Shakespeare's plays, starting with The Taming of the Shrew in 1914 to Troilus and Cressida in 1923.

In 1925, Baylis sought to re-open the derelict Sadler's Wells Theatre and in 1927 established a ballet company there. For the first few years the drama and ballet companies, known as the "Vic-Wells" companies, rotated between the two theatres, with the ballet becoming permanently based at Sadler's Wells in 1935.

In 1928, the ballet company engaged Ninette de Valois, under whose direction British classical ballet developed at Sadler's Wells until eventually the ballet company became known as the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet Company until it moved to Birmingham in 1990.

Baylis was awarded an honorary Master’s degree from Oxford University in 1924, only the second such honour to be given to a woman by the university. In 1929, she was made a Companion of Honour (CH) for service to the nation.

The current Sadler's Wells theatre contains a 200-seat theatre named in her honour. In Vauxhall there is the Lillian Baylis secondary school also named in her honour.