Vesta Victoria

Who was Vesta Victoria?

Vesta Victoria was an English music hall singer and comedian. Although born in Leeds, Yorkshire, Vesta adopted a Cockney persona on stage. She began her career as a small child appearing with her father.

The painter Walter Sickert made a portrait of her performance Vesta Victoria at the Old Bedford, in about 1890.

Her solo career took off in 1892 when Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow Wow became a hit. Vesta's comic laments delivered in deadpan style were as popular in the United States as in her homeland and she toured and recorded in America in 1907, where she was one of the most highly paid vaudeville stars. Between appearances, she lived on a houseboat, moored near Hampton Court.

Vesta retired after World War I but re-recorded many of her hits in 1931 in a series of Old-Time Medleys, and appeared in the Royal Variety Show of 1932.

She also appeared in a number of films in the 1930s. She died at Hampstead on 7 April 1951, and was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, where a lilac tree was planted in her memory.