Olga Nethersole was born in London, of Spanish descent on her mother's side, and made her stage début at Theatre Royal, Brighton in 1887. From 1888 she played important parts in London, at first under Rutland Barrington and John Hare at the Garrick Theatre.
She toured Australia and America, playing leading parts in modern plays, notably Clyde Fitch's Sapho, where she was arrested for "violating public decency" and later found innocent at trial.Her powerful emotional acting, however, made a great effect in some other plays, such as Carmen, in which she again appeared in America in 1906.
She served as a nurse in London throughout World War I and later established the People's League of Health, for which she received the Royal Red Cross (RRC) in 1920. She combined her theatre work with health work for the rest of her life. She was created a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1936.
She died on 9 January 1951 in Bournemouth, England.
(source: Wikipedia)