LONDON.- A new display at the National Portrait Gallery marks the centenary of Sir William Schwenck Gilbert’s death in 1911. Gilbert alongside Sir Arthur Sullivan made up the famous partnership of Gilbert and Sullivan that revolutionized Victorian theatre with comic operas such as HMS Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836 –1911) worked as a civil servant, a captain in the Militia and a barrister before becoming a dramatist and librettist, writing numerous plays, sketches and stories. He became irrevocably linked to Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) when they first collaborated on Thespis (1871). Sullivan had been awarded the first Mendelssohn Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music and achieved early success as a composer. Together they created a series of operas performed at the Savoy Theatre which was built especially for performances of their works by Richard D’O