Vesta Tilley - Music Hall Star

Born on 13 May 1864, Matilda Alice Powles started her life in humble surroundings in Worcester in Commandery Row in the Blockhouse (roughly where Dent Close is now). She was the second of thirteen children born to Harry Powles a china gilder, most probably at the porcelain works although this is not confirmed, and his wife Matilda Broughton.

With her father also a keen performer in the music hall in his act as "Harry Ball, the tramp musician", it is no surprise that when Matilda, known as Tilley, showed early signs of promise, she too was encouraged to tread the boards by her father. He acted as her first manager as she took to the stage as "The Great Little Tilley" before she even reached her fifth birthday. Tilley began her full-time career at Day's Concert Hall in Birmingham as a male impersonator for the sum of £5 per week.

Under her stage name of Vesta Tilley, which it has been suggested she chose after she asked someone in one of her sketches for a light to hear the reply, "Have a Vesta, Tilley", she brought to life many comic caricatures of social characters. It was this skill and charm as a male impersonator that was to bring her fame and success in roles such as Monte from Monte Carlo, Algy the Piccadilly Johnny with the little glass eye, and of course her best remembered character, Burlington Bertie.

Today it is hard to comprehend the full extent of her popularity. Perhaps it could best be likened to the following that Princess Diana once achieved, with millions of fans all over the world listening to and singing the songs she made famous. What is certain is that she was so popular at the time of the First World War that her songs were often used in recruiting drives and as a result saw an increase in the numbers enlisting, sometimes even at the concerts themselves.

Vesta Tilley performed to hugely appreciative audiences throughout the country and many places, Birmingham, Nottingham, London and Liverpool have variously attempted to to claim that she was born there. Record has it that at one concert in Birmingham it took her a full twenty minutes to quieten the cheering crowd sufficiently for her to be able to continue her performance, and in London despite hailing from Worcester, she was known as "The London Idol". Vesta Tilley also toured America in musicals and plays until work commitments brought her home to England.

When she retired from the stage in 1920, she was presented with a series of books signed by her adoring fans. The books known as "The People's Tribute" contained over 2 million signatures, including those of her fellow celebrities Charlie Chaplin, Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the Sherlock Holmes stories, and Harry Houdini, the great escape artist among others.

Vesta Tilley fell in love with and later married Walter de Frece in 1890 in Brixton. As the son of a theatre manager and later a manager himself, he took over her management. He later became a Conservative MP for Ashton-under-Lyne. The couple were honoured for their contributions to charity and became Sir Walter and Lady Matilda de Frece in 1919. Vesta Tilley died in 1952 at the age of 88. Vesta's life is remembered in her autobiography in which she referred to Worcester as a "poor, proud and pretty city".

For more information about Vesta Tilley, log on to the Vesta Tilley Society website at www.vestatilleysociety.net