BANCROFT, SIR SQUIRE (1841-1926), English actor and manager, first appeared in 186 i at Birmingham, and played in the provinces for several years. His first London appearance was in 1865 in Wooler's A Winning Hazard at the Prince of Wales's theatre, under the management of Effie Marie Wilton (b. 184o), whom he married in 1868. Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft were associated in the production of all the Robertson comedies (see ROBERTSON, THOMAS WILLIAM) :-Society (1865), Ours (1866), Caste 0867), Play (1868), School (1869), and M.P. (187o), and, after Robertson's death, in revivals of the old comedies, Lytton's Money (1872), Boucicault's London Assur ance (1877), and Diplomacy, an adaptation of Sardou's Dora, were among their productions. The Bancroft management at the Prince of Wales's theatre had the effect of reviving the London interest in modern drama. In 1879 they moved to the Haymar ket, where Sardou's Odette (for which they engaged Madame Modjeska) and Fedora, W. S. Gilbert's Sweethearts and Pinero's Lords and Commons were produced. They retired in 1885, but Mr. Bancroft (who was knighted in 1897) joined Sir Henry Irving in 1889 to play the abbe Latour in a revival of Watts Phillips's Dead Heart. Lady Bancroft died in 1921 ; Sir Squire Bancroft died on April 19, 1926.
See Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft, on and off the Stage (1888) , and The Bancro f is : Recollections of Sixty Years (1909) , by themselves; also Empty Chairs (1925), a volume of reminiscences, by Sir Squire Bancroft.