George Robert Sims

For the founding pioneer of New Port Richey see George R. With Cecil Raleigh he wrote the hit burlesque opera Little Christopher Columbus (1893) and among his other musical plays were Blue-eyed Susan at the Prince of Wales Theatre (1892 starring Arthur Roberts) and The Dandy Fifth (Birmingham 1898) and Dandy Dick Whittington (1895) at the Avenue Theatre with a score by Ivan Caryll.

Sims was also a very successful dramatist writing numerous plays often in collaboration several of which had long runs and international success. He also bred bulldogs was an avid sportsman and lived richly among a large circle of literary and artistic friends. Sims began writing lively humour and satiric pieces for Fun magazine and The Referee but he was soon concentrating on social reform particularly the plight of the poor in London's slums.