Vesta Tilley, AKA Lady de Frece Prior to 1934

            The Postcard

A postally unused Philco Series postcard which claims on the back to be a 'real photograph' and to be of British manufacture.

Philco

The Philco Publishing Co. of  1-6 Holborn Place, London were active between 1905 to 1934. They published many different types of artist-signed cards and photo-based view-cards.

They are noted for three large sets representing Faith, Hope, and Charity. 

Most of their cards were printed in Germany, although a set of real photo birthday greeting cards were manufactured in Italy.

Vesta Tilley

Matilda Alice Powles was born in Worcester on the 13th. May 1864, and died in London on the 16th. September 1952,  having lived for 88 years 4 months and 4 days, or, to put it another way, 32,268 days.

Matilda was an English music hall performer who adopted the stage name Vesta Tilley.  She became one of the most famous male impersonators of her era.

Vesta Tilley - The Early Years

At the age of 6 she performed her first role in male clothing, billed as 'The Pocket Sims Reeves', a reference to the opera singer Sims Reeves.  She would come to prefer doing male roles exclusively, saying that:

"I felt that I could express myself 
better if I were dressed as a boy".

She was billed for the first time as Vesta Tilley in 1878 - Vesta referred to both the Roman goddess of hearth and home, and to a brand of safety matches. Tilley was her childhood name for Matilda.

Vesta Tilley - The Later Years

One of her most famous stage characters was Burlington Bertie, and she often reprised her role of Dick Whittington in pantomime.

Vesta also played a number of military characters, especially during the Boer War and the Great War. In fact, Vesta's popularity reached its all-time high during WW1, when she and her husband ran a military recruitment drive in the guise of 'Tommy in the Trench' and 'Jack Tar Home From the Sea'.

Vesta performed songs such as 'The Army of Today's All Right' and 'Jolly Good Luck to the Girl who Loves a Soldier'. This is how she earned the nickname 'Britain's Best Recruiting Sergeant' - young men were sometimes asked to join the army on stage during her show.

She was prepared to be controversial. Famously she sang a song 'I'm Glad I've got a Blighty One' about a soldier who was delighted to have been wounded, as it got him a ticket home away from the deadly battlefields.

Marriage

Vesta married Walter de Frece in 1890. He was knighted in 1919, and Vesta called herself Lady de Frece from then onwards.

Death of Vesta Tilley

When Vesta died in 1952 she was buried alongside her husband at Putney Vale Cemetery. A black granite memorial marks the spot.

Taken on: August 30, 2014

Tags:

postcard

old

nostalgic

nostalgia

Vesta

Tilley

Philco

Series

Lady

Frece

Matilda

Alice

Powles

Worcester

1864

London

1952

English

music

hall

Pocket

Sims

Reeves

opera

singer

1878

Roman

goddess

hearth

home

safety

matches

Burlington

Bertie

Dick

Whittington

pantomime

Boer

war

Great

WW1

recruitment

drive

military

Tommy

Trench

28VES54

Jack

Tar

Sea

blighty

one

1890

1919

Putney

Vale

Cemetery

black

granite

memorial « less

Sets appears in: • Actresses and Actors • Biographies

Camera: HP psc1400 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	HP psc1400
Saturation:	Low
Sharpness:	Soft
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Paint Shop Pro
Show full info

Stats: 2,595 views

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder