Dimond, William Wyatt

c.1752

1812

Dimond was born in the early 1750s. Nothing is known of his early life except that he was intended to be a silver engraver. He spent some 35 years in the theatre but a relatively short time on the London stage. After his first appearance at Drury Lane on 1 October 1772 as Romeo, he played that season Dorilas in “Meropé” and Moneses in “Tamerlane”. According to the English clergyman, poet and dramatist, William Hawkins' description in his Miscellanies in Prose and Verse (1775) of this first performance, Dimond had 'very conspicuous merit in some scenes of Romeo; in others, he was totally insufficient, in judgment, voice, and expression, particularly in the frantic scenes; but on the whole, he supported that character (considering his age, which was then but nineteen) with tolerable ease and propriety…' He was again at Drury Lane in 1773-74 filling some supporting roles and played at the Haymarket in the summer of 1775. His last appearances in London came in the summer of 1779 at the Haymarket, when he acted Charles in “The Jealous Wife” and Lord Newbry in the premiere of Colman’s “The Separate Maintenance” (31 August). Since 1772 Dimond had been delving into theatrical management at Canterbury. He was connected with the Bath Theatre from at least 1775, and he was to remain associated there until his death in 1812. By 1786 he was involved in the business of the theatre with William Keasberry, and eventually he became manager and joint proprietor. He quit acting in 1801 but continued to manage at Bath and at Bristol. In 1805 he took over the new Theatre Royal in Beaufort Square, which he had helped plan. Dimond died at Bath on 2 January 1812 and was buried at Bath Abbey. In addition to the picture by De Wilde of Dimond as Don Felix (159), that artist did a watercolour of him as Philaster; it is in the Harvard Theatre Collection and was engraved by Audinet for “Bell’s British Theatre”, 1791. (BDA)