Background
Alice Davis was born in Dublin, Ireland, and was known professionally as Hope Temple.
Alice Davis was born in Dublin, Ireland, and was known professionally as Hope Temple.
Initially she studied music with the idea of becoming a pianist, but an injury in a riding accident caused her to give up her ambitions.
She was also known as "Mistress André Messager". She moved with her family to England at age 12 and began composing ballads at the age of 14. In the early 1890s she continued her studies in Paris with André Wormser and André Messager.
In 1892, her operetta The Wooden Spoon was produced in London (also in New York, 1893), but she was known primarily for her songs, some of which became very popular.
Her song My Lady"s Bower is sung by Molly Bloom in James Joyce"s Ulysses. In 1892, a reproduction of a photograph of her taken by Alex Bassano of Old Bond Street, London, was published in the Strand Magazine, as part of a series called "Types of English Beauty".
The marriage was fairly short-lived. Hope Temple died in Folkestone, England.