On February the 12th 1870, Hoxton, London, John Wood, a maker of artificial flowers and part time waiter at the Royal eagle tavern and his wife Matilda, a dressmaker and apparently shrewd business woman, welcomed what was to be their first child of nine in to the world, Matilda Victoria Wood.

From very early on in childhood Matilda as she was then known, harboured dreams of becoming a music hall singer. As soon as she was old enough the small child took a keen interest in her mothers dressmaking and would stage her own little recitals with the aid of her younger sisters, Daisy, Alice and rose, all of whom went on to have their own success as principle boys in panto (another great British institution!)

Young Matilda had tried her hand at a couple of jobs, lasting only a few days, it was a time that few opportunities were available for a young girl of her social standing and must have come as no surprise to those who knew her when she announced her intention of treading the boards.

Bella Delamare was born!

With no objection from her parents Matilda's first unpaid appearance was at 'The Grecian', she sung two songs, 'Time is flying' and 'My soldier lassie' after which she danced an Irish jig which she claimed 'went down immense!'

Out of this fledgling performance came a trial performance at 'Belmonts sebright Hall' in the Hackney road, which quickly lead to a weeks engagement for the princely sum of 15/d per week.

Not at all work shy, she began appearing at other small halls, often two or three per night, costume slung over arm as she rushed from one venue to the next as many music hall veterans did, her hard work proved to pay off in a very short time and she was a huge success, changing her name from Bella Delamare to Marie Lloyd, we're not sure where 'Lloyd' came from but it was thought she adopted the name 'Marie' as it sounded 'classy'....The surname Lloyd was also adopted by her sisters for their stage performances too.

Marie's first hit song was 'The boy I love is up in the gallery', although this song was Nelly Power's, Maire made it her own, and is still probably one on the songs she is best known for today.

Marie was soon earning very good money, if only her choice in men had been as astute as her choice in songs! Marie met Percy Courtney and they married on November the 12th 1887, Percy was 25 and Marie, although stated as 18 on her marriage certificate was in actual fact only 17.

They set up house in Lewisham and began living very grandly indeed, thanks to Marie's income and generosity rather than Percys' time spent at the race tracks. Although they had what was to be Marie's only child together, a daughter, also named Marie, their marriage did not survive. Percys' drinking spiralled out of control and his violent outbursts and attacks left Marie in fear of her life and by 1893 they were living apart, however, Percy did not want to relinquish his hold over Marie and it wasn't until he had appeared at her stage door threatening her that she sought a warrant against him and in 1894 the magistrates found in favour of Marie and the marriage was ended.

They may have been turmoil in Marie's private life, but her career continued to flourish going from strength to strength, playing Drury Lane in panto with Dan Leno to rousing acclaim, but at heart she was a people person, enjoying a great rapport with her audiences, preferring the smaller venues to the larger venues where she could play unscripted and with out restriction. There was something about Marie, she could convey volumes all with a cheeky wink or a tilt of her head!

It wasn't just her cheeky winks that were soon to get her in trouble, the press began to have a field day taking her to task over her 'rude' and 'vulgar' lyrics, Marie soon caught the attention of a Mrs Ormiston Chant of the Purity Party, who was in opposition to the renewal of Music Hall licenses at the magistrates sessions. Mrs Chant sought to make a very public protest from the stalls during one of Marie's performances and Marie was eventually bought before the Vigilance committee.

Singing her own songs minus her usual winks and gestures, Marie conveyed an image of complete innocence and the committee had to let her go! Though rumour has it she was to swiftly follow with a rendition of the drawing room ballad 'Come in to the garden Maude' with not only great gusto but also complete with all the gestures she could muster to make it as obscene as possible!

The Music Halls obtained their renewals of licenses in October 1896 and Marie and little Marie junior embarked on a successful tour of South Africa, and the younger Marie made her way in to her mothers act, introduced as 'Little Maudie Courtney', everyone loved two new songs performed during this period, 'Twiggy Voo' and the now infamous 'Oh Mr Porter!'

The following year saw Marie journey across the pond to America, but Marie's 'scandalous reputation' arrived first as the New York gossips extended their claws rather than the hand of friendship to greet Marie. Typically Marie sought to defend herself in the press claiming her songs were not 'blue'...though one could argue that she did nothing to help herself by adding 'They don't pay their sixpences and shillings at a music hall to hear the Salvation Army. If I was to try to sing highly moral songs they would fire ginger beer bottles and beer mugs at me. I can't help it if people want to turn and twist my meanings.' as she was quoted as saying according to an article in The New York Telegraph, November 14th 1897.

Upon her return to England Marie met and reputedly fell in love with the 'coster singer' Alec Hurley, venturing to Australia in 1901 where they appeared together to great acclaim. Marie and Alec lived together for several years before Marie's divorce became final in 1906.

The first Music Hall strike meeting was held soon after at Marie and Alec's home in Hampstead. The strike had been called by the smaller, less well known artists who were not turning such a pretty coin as Marie could command, due to the changes made in contracts these poor artists unfairly found themselves performing extra performance for no extra money at all and something clearly needed to be done.

Marie was always willing to intervene on behalf of those less fortunate than herself, she had made payments for 150 beds nightly for the homeless and destitute of London, for boots for small barefooted children who congregated around her stage door, never forgetting her own humble beggingings making so not only did she make very generous contributions to the strike fund, she was also very verbal and spoke out about her fellow performers poor working and pay conditions. The strike was very successful for the artists, but somehow, the managers never did forgive her.

Marie's private life always somehow seemed turbulent, discontent with her marriage she had turned her attention to a young Irish jockey called Bernard Dillon, whom she had met and reputedly fallen madly in love with when he won the Derby on a horse named Lemburg, Marie by now was 40 and Bernard was 22, needless to say, this of course spelt the end of her marriage to Alec, who went on to tour alone while his wife set up house with Bernard.

Again, things were to prove less than rosy, about a year later Bernard's license was taken from him by the jockey club which ended his career and he began drinking heavily, one can imagine how crushing this would have been for Marie as she was surely aware that she was losing another man to the bottle.

1912 was the year of the very first Royal Command performance and it was especially for the Music Hall, a great acknowledgment for all involved, it was akin to having a Royal seal of approval! Marie of course should have been at the top of the list of chosen acts, however Marie's name was not even on it, in fact she was not even invited to the finale in which 142 artists were to walk on, surely this could not have been the managers taking their petty revenge for her part in the Music Hall strike?

After waiting for some time, for her name to be added to the list, at the last Minuit she defiantly staged her own show at the London Pavilion, with strips stuck across the posters saying 'every performance by Marie Lloyd is a command performance!' and 'by order of the British public', which of course was a rousing success! She may have been deeply wounded by the snub, but Marie Lloyd was never a one to just roll over and admit defeat, not while she had such a loyal, strong following!

Whilst Marie could usually turn around a situation such as not been invited to appear at The Royal Variety Performance, the following year in 1913 there was further and more damaging humiliation to come. Marie and Bernard were still together and had set out to America to embark on a six month tour. They had been traveling as Mr & Mrs Dillon and after being questioned by a quayside immigration officer Marie had to admit she was not in fact married to Bernard Dillon and they were stopped from landing. The next day they both attended an inquiry, with several lawyers in attendance, only to be told both she and Dillon were to be deported for 'moral turptitude' and further this indignity, they would be interned on Ellis island until the 'Olympic' sailed back the following Saturday.

Marie and Bernard simply could do nothing about the situation and the following Friday they both boarded the boat in preparation to return home the next day, but in a remarkable turn of events, just as they were about to set sail, word came that if Marie paid a bail fee of £300 (an outrageous sum of money for the time) they could stay after all providing they stayed in separate establishments. Perhaps there were contractual matters, or perhaps simply the show had to go on, either way, the money way paid and they stayed.

About half way through the tour news came, Alec Hurley had died and at the British consulate in Portland Oregon, on February the 21st 1914...despite Bernard's continued drinking... Marie and Bernard were married and another marriage certificate falsified, this time she took seven years off her age to make herself 37, Bernard by now was 29.

The couple arrived back on British soil to a huge welcome and Marie continued to tour up un til the outbreak of the Great War and then went on to entertain the troops in hospitals and theatres and workers in factories all over the country, one of the songs she sang during this time was 'The girl in the khaki dress'.

As time had marched on, Bernard's drinking had steadily worsened, he was by now a very heavy drinker who became an abusive husband, ill-treating Marie and she herself began to look for solace in the bottom of a bottle, no doubt their relationship only became more volatile and self destructive, culminating in an incident in 1920 when Bernard was charged with assaulting Maries father john Wood and was bound over to the sum of £100 to be of good behaviour, however other cases ensued and eventually, a separation was granted for the unlucky in love Marie.

The one consistency in Marie's life had always been the stage, she had been good to it and it had been good to her, but though she continued to perform it started to become difficult to get her on stage in time, her voice became weaker and as a consequence, her act shorter.

Marie's health had been in decline for some time and on October the 22nd 1922, whilst appearing in Edmonton performing the famous 'Its a bit of a ruin the Cromwell knocked about a bit', she staggered about as if drunk , while the audience fell about in laughter thinking it to be part of the act she was actually desperately ill and when she fell over it was for real and marked the end of her last ever appearance on stage, she died three days later on October the 7th.

In the funeral procession there were twelve cars of flowers and on top of the hearse lay the ebony cane and sparkling top hat she had used when performing the song 'Directoire Dress'. Over one hundred thousand people were in attendance. Marie had been a 'people person' and despite her own troubles she had never forgotten her humble beginnings nor her place of privilege and the public who had put her there, and as the crowds gathered to pay their last respects and say farewell to the Queen of the Music hall, it was quite apparent they would never forget her.

Marie Lloyd was laid to rest in Hampstead cemetery with her parents John and Matilda Wood and joined by her daughter Marie Lloyd Jr when she died in 1967.