Clemence Dane (1888—1965)
Clemence Dane’s real name was Winifred Ashton, She was born in Westcombe Park Road, which is now in the London Borough of Greenwich, but in 1897 the family moved to 22 Westwood Hill, Sydenham, where they stayed until 1901, and during this period Clemence Dane attended Sydenham High School, Her family then moved out of Lewisham, but she returned to the area in about 1913 to live with an old schoolfriend at The Cottage, The Mount (now Mount Gardens), Sydenham, and remained there until about 1919.
Clemence Dane was a prolific author of plays, novels and film and radio scripts. She started her career as an actress, in 1913, but she soon turned to writing, and her first novel was published in 1917. Her first play, “A Bill of Divorcement”, was produced in 1921 and was her greatest success, later being made into a well-known Hollywood film. Many more novels and plays followed, and she also wrote film scripts, sometimes with collaborators, including “Anna Karenina” for Greta Garbo, and “St. Martin’s Lane” for Charles Laughton. She was very interested in the theatre and theatrical history, both of which are used as background in her best novels, “Broome Stages” (1931) and “The Flower Girls” (1954). Much of her work for radio was also on historical themes, and in 1958 she wrote a play for BBC television commemorating the four-hundredth anniversary of Queen Elizabeth l’s accession to the throne,
Clemence Dane won an Oscar as scriptwriter of “Vacation from Marriage” in 1946, and she was awarded the CBE in 1953. In private life she was unmarried, but kept open house for friends and was noted for her generous, outgoing character.