Alexander Hurley

Who was Alexander Hurley?

Alexander Hurley was best known for being Marie Lloyd's second husband, though he was also a successful and talented performer in his own right.

He went from working in London's docks as a tea packer to boxing in fairground booths, before moving on to the music hall as a coster singer with the song The Strongest Man In The World. He also sang a song called The Lambeth Walk, though this is not the version later made famous in the musical Me and My Girl.

He was also an early keep-fit fanatic. He listed among his spare time activities sculling, ball punching, going for long walks and jogging on Hampstead Heath.

He met Marie Lloyd in 1901 and went on a tour of Australia with her and several other music hall acts. By the time they returned to England they were definitely an item, and they were married in 1905, shortly after Lloyd's divorce from her first husband, Percy Charles Courtenay.

At first their marriage was happy, but relations became increasingly strained when work took them to opposite ends of the country for weeks on end, and Lloyd started drinking heavily and gambling at the races, where she met a jockey called Bernard Dillon, who she moved in with, leaving Alec to tour alone.