Florence Farr

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British actress and producer of plays in March and April 1894 that were called "the birth of the modern English royal theatre." Farr had gone into the theater after dropping out of college. After four years, she married an improvident young actor but when they separated, she returned to the stage. In 1890, while portraying a priestess in a poetic pastoral celebrating women's freedom, she met George Bernard Shaw along with William Yeats . She became Shaw's mistress. In February 1891, her acting reputation was enhanced by to her appearance in an Ibsen play on the London stage. Yeats found her enchanting and he introduced her to mysticism, subsequently initiating her into the Golden Dawn, June 1890, the first of a series of mystical initiations. She studied the occult and astrology, spending her time at the British Museum and Library. In December 1893, she wrote that she had been contacted by one of the Ascended Masters. In 1893, Annie Horniman offered to financially sponsor her theatrical season, leading to her noted plays. Farr was the model for George Bernard Shaw's "New Woman." She later became the first principal of a woman's college in Ceylon. She died of breast cancer April 29, 1917, in Colombo, India, age 56. Link to Wikipedia biography