Opera Singer. A mezzo soprano, she was a fixture of the London stage during the 1930s. Little is known of her early years beyond a failed early marriage to publisher Noel Brack. She made her theatrical bow in 1927 as Nixie in "The Ladder", then became a regular with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in the early 1930s. Among Evers' Gilbert and Sullivan roles were Tessa in "The Gondoliers", Mad Margaret in "Ruddigore", Leila from "Iloanthe", Kate in "The Pirates of Penzance", Lady Saphir of "Patience", and Peep-Bo from "The Mikado". For the rest of the decade she sang and acted at a number of London venues, her turns including the lead in Boughton's "The Lily Maid" at the Winter Garden and the Lady in Milton's "Comus" at the Open Air Theatre. According to legend, she was in the cast of "Ever So Long Ago" when the seven year-old future Queen Elizabeth II attended her first play. In 1936, Evers married 1924 Olympic Gold Medalist Harold Abrahams. She was "portrayed" by Alice Krige in the Oscar-winning 1981 film "Chariots of Fire", though the movie made significant errors; the wrong Savoyard named "Sybil" is depicted as Abrahams' (played by Ben Cross) love interest, as the quite real Sybil Gordon had no connection to the runner. The timeline is also wrong, as the couple did not meet until 1935. Leaving the stage in 1938 after appearing as Hansel in Engelbert Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel" at the Scala Theatre, she resided with her family at Hodderson, Hertfordshire. From 1965 to 1996, the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art awarded a Sybil Evers Memorial Prize for Singing. Upon his death, Abrahams was buried in the same grave as was Evers.
Opera Singer. A mezzo soprano, she was a fixture of the London stage during the 1930s. Little is known of her early years beyond a failed early marriage to publisher Noel Brack. She made her theatrical bow in 1927 as Nixie in "The Ladder", then became a regular with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in the early 1930s. Among Evers' Gilbert and Sullivan roles were Tessa in "The Gondoliers", Mad Margaret in "Ruddigore", Leila from "Iloanthe", Kate in "The Pirates of Penzance", Lady Saphir of "Patience", and Peep-Bo from "The Mikado". For the rest of the decade she sang and acted at a number of London venues, her turns including the lead in Boughton's "The Lily Maid" at the Winter Garden and the Lady in Milton's "Comus" at the Open Air Theatre. According to legend, she was in the cast of "Ever So Long Ago" when the seven year-old future Queen Elizabeth II attended her first play. In 1936, Evers married 1924 Olympic Gold Medalist Harold Abrahams. She was "portrayed" by Alice Krige in the Oscar-winning 1981 film "Chariots of Fire", though the movie made significant errors; the wrong Savoyard named "Sybil" is depicted as Abrahams' (played by Ben Cross) love interest, as the quite real Sybil Gordon had no connection to the runner. The timeline is also wrong, as the couple did not meet until 1935. Leaving the stage in 1938 after appearing as Hansel in Engelbert Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel" at the Scala Theatre, she resided with her family at Hodderson, Hertfordshire. From 1965 to 1996, the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art awarded a Sybil Evers Memorial Prize for Singing. Upon his death, Abrahams was buried in the same grave as was Evers.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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