[AUSTRALIAN THEATRE] Julius Knight as “Raffles”

[Australia : s.n., probably 1907]. Photographic postcard, 86 x 137 mm, captioned in the negative ‘Julius Knight as “Raffles”‘; verso imprinted ‘Post Card’ and ‘Julius Knight Series’; unused, in fine condition.

The Scottish thespian Julius Knight (born James Dickson Kirkpatrick, 1862-1941) visited Australasia under the management of entrepreneur J. C. Williamson four times between 1897 and 1916, and the handsome actor became something of a matinee idol in the Antipodes. During his 1907-08 tour he portrayed on Australian and New Zealand stages the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, a fictional character created by English writer E. W. Hornung (1866-1921), brother-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The part had been made famous on the London stage by the great English actor Gerald du Maurier.

Knight, as the debonair Raffles, is seen on the left in this carefully lit photographic tableau vivant, which shows off the actor’s classical profile marvellously well. We can be reasonably certain that the ‘Julius Knight Series’ of postcards was published in Australia (or, much less likely, New Zealand) as there is no record of Knight playing Raffles at any other point in his career, aside from when he reprised the part during his 1915 tour of Australia.

Another example of this postcard is held in the NLA (David Elliott theatrical postcard collection).