Opera singer; Pianist; Conductor; Musical Entrepreneur
Maud Streatfield Bond was born in Brighton in 1866. She was the daughter of Peter Bond and Naomi Baker. Her father was born in the East End of London in West Ham and was a Draper by trade. She had 2 elder brothers Harry and William. Maud lived in a few different places in Brighton and also Ditchling during her lifetime. She was bought up at 32 Clarence Square, Central Brighton as a young child, and then by the early 1880s the family were lodging at Lucy Butcher’s house (a property owner) at “The Chestnuts” Ditchling. At this time her father Peter Bond ran a “Mantle” warehouse in Western Road, near Brunswick Square. There appeared to be a split between Maud’s parents in the 1880s and by 1891, Peter was living in Torquay with another woman.
By the 1891 census, both Maud and William had created themselves, individual careers. William studied Art in London and Paris and by 1905 he was Headmaster of The Brighton Municipal School of Art. Maud described herself as a “vocalist and musician” and she studied at the Brighton School of Music, Athenaeum Hall, 148 North Street and later with her LRAM (Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music professional diploma) she was able to attract private pupils and live by independent means.
The siblings were obviously close as they stayed living together for the next 30 years. Firstly they were boarding together in a house at 5 Bath Street, Seven Dials, and then moved round the corner to 2, Prestonville Road, where they stayed for many years and where their mother came to join them before she died. Seven Dials was Maud’s base and from there she developed a very lucrative and successful career as a solo singer; conductor; musical director and teacher of singing. She was constantly being written about in the all the local Sussex papers, firstly as a singer and then in her latter years as a musical entrepreneur. She organised concerts in the Royal Pavilion, Brighton; Haywards Heath; Cuckfield; Hurstpierpoint and Ditchling. She supported school choirs and adjudicated musical competitions for schoolchildren.
As a singer in her 20s and 30s she was in great demand for concerts in Brighton, London and Sussex. In her early 30s, Maud sung at a venue in Paris where all the great singers and composers had performed, The Salle Erard. She was under the patronage of Sir Edward and Lady Sassoon who were well known for their financial contributions to Brighton events. The French audience, according to the London Newspaper ‘The Sketch’ were “charmed by her sweet voice and talking manner.”
She was president of the Sussex Branch “Incorporated Society of Musicians.” She was also
“toastmaster” in 1933 for the “Anon Club” Annual dinner at the Ship Hotel, Brighton. The club existed to promote good fellowship and companionship among professional and business women of the town. Throughout her long career she encouraged girls and women to learn, play and enjoy music at all levels. In 1900 at the Drill Hall, Hurstpierpoint she directed a woman-only performance of “The Spanish Gipsies.” In 1932 there was a “Maud Bond” cup awarded at the Brighton Music Festival to the best junior choir, which in that year was won by Varndean Junior School. Both Maud and her brother William used their names and fame in Brighton during WW1 to support the ‘Local War Depot Fund.’ Maud organised a concert at the Gymnasium in Brunswick with pupils of local schools. 5 other women helped her and she was described in the Mid Sussex Times as “standing high in the musical world.” In 1919 she produced yet another concert in Cuckfield entirely made up of women performers.
Described as “quite a character” by the newspapers in 1925 in the Brighton Pageant, remembering old familiar characters of Brighton’s History, she took on the role of Martha Gunn the famous ‘Mistress of the Bathing Huts’ and “cleverly passed by with a knowing ‘aside’ to her audience, denoting her familiarity with the elite of Brighton!”
Maud died in a nursing home in Cuckfield in 1959 aged 92.
By Jenny Stroud