Biography

Aylwin was best known for creating character roles in successful Edwardian musical comedies early in the 20th century.

Her divorce in 1924 from a colonel in the Intelligence Corps involved allegations of infidelity.

She was educated at George Watsons College, Edinburgh.

On 13 December 1913, Aylwin married Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred Rawlinson, son of Sir Henry Rawlinson, the famed Assyriologist. They were divorced in 1924; the composer Hubert Bath was named as co-respondent in the case. The court heard that while she had been appearing in Polly, she had asked her husband to rent a flat for her opposite the theatre. When he went to visit her there, he encountered Mr Bath. On learning that his wife was too ill to come out, Rawlinson invited Bath out to lunch, who declined, claiming a prior engagement. Rawlinson returned to the flat later, where he again met Bath. When Bath went to ask Aylwin if she was well enough to receive her husband, Rawlinson heard her ask "Has he gone?" which aroused his suspicions about Bath's presence. Aylwin wrote to her husband afterwards, saying he was "quite wrong", and that Bath had been "a good friend". However, the housekeeper testified that Aylwin and Bath had often been alone together at the flat. The court found for Colonel Rawlinson and granted the divorce.

She began her professional stage career in 1904 with a touring company playing character roles in smaller towns in the British provinces in such melodramas as The Red Coat and No Cross, No Crown. She later toured with a company managed by George Dance as a shop assistant in the Edwardian musical comedy The Girl from Kays, and next was engaged at the Gaiety Theatre, in the chorus.