Lily Flexmore Welcomes You!
Image Courtesy of Ms Karen Wall
Hello There! Thank you so much for visiting!
May I invite you to stay awhile and read about my life-story?
If you have come because you are interested in the the Flexmore name, then this may be of use to you as you search for your own family history.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to my Great Great Niece, Ms. Karen Wall for her work in searching for me over more than twenty years!
Karen...thank you so much for your sustained efforts, without which I would never have been found! I would have forever remained a mystery, and the story of my life, my lovely husband and my career would have remained lost in the mists of time.
Like the song says....I once was lost, but now am found!!!!!!! Thank you so much, Karen, for also finding the last resting place of my husband, George Ambrose White and myself.
My name was Ellen Mary Anne Dunn. I was born 146 years ago at 56 Peerless Street, London, England on February 25th 1879. My parents were John Dunn and Ellen Dunnell. Dad was a worker in leather, making boots, shoes and whips. He also worked as a dock-side labourer from time-to-time.
Mum was a homemaker - she needed to be as there were eleven of us!
Our house is no longer there; it would have stood at what is now the rear of Moorfield's Eye Hospital.
From a young age, I trained as a dancer, a gymnast and as a contortionist. It is possible that I trained at the Flexmore School of Dance. I adopted and kept the Flexmore name as my stage-name throughout my career. Others did the same, such as Florence, Elizabeth and Lydia Prodger, who toured and performed as The Sisters Flexmore.
One of my tutors may have been Laurence Sidney May, (1863-1928) who was an exponent of what was called 'Leg-Mania'. He also went by Fred Flexmore, and performed until an injury forced him off the stage in 1906. He continued on as a pantomimist and was very successful until his death in 1928.
Another possible tutor was Fred Flexmore (1869 - ).
He was the son of Frederick Flexmore, (1846-1892) a decorative artist and soloist, and Mary Cary (1849-1914). His sister Florence, when she was only nine years old, along with brothers George and Handel, performed as The Flexmore Three. Florence later toured with her sisters as The Sisters Chester.
Image Courtesy of Paul Duffett
Image Courtesy of Ms Karen Wall
John Dunn 1857 - 1925
Ellen Mary Dunnell 1857 - 1919
Image Courtesy of Ms Karen Wall
On Saturday, March 23rd, 1895, when I
had just turned 16 years old, I played in the
very first British Ladies Football Club match
at Nightingale Lane, Crouch End in London.
There were two teams: North London versus
South London.
We played in front of a crowd of nearly
11,000 spectators. I played for the North
side and we won by 7 goals to 1!
I was also developing my Lily Flexmore stage persona at that time, and, after many of these matches, some of the girls and I would stage a variety show. Folks seemed to love it and we had a great old time!
I have great memories of an exceptional night
at the Variety Hall in North London after a
fixture at the Wembley Park Cricket Ground
on January 22nd 1897.
Phoebe Smith, Marie Ennis, Violet Clarence, Blanche Foxcroft and I put on a show that was not forgotten in a hurry!
Here are the ladies of the North London Team, sitting for our portrait in the studios of Robert Barrass at 180 Westgate Road, in Newcastle. That's little me in the front row on the far left!
Nettie Honeyball, our captain, is standing second from left.
In order to preserve our privacy, many of us used pseudonyms. I played using Ruth Coupland or Compton.
Image Courtesy of Paul Duffett
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Here are the ladies of the South London Team, sitting for the same portrait.
On May 16th, 1896 I played in what was among the very first international Ladies Football matches. It took place in Dublin, Ireland, at Jones Road, (now Croke Park), with a trio of teams representing England, Scotland and Ireland.
On May 23rd, still in Dublin, we ladies took on a male team and won by 5 goals to 2!
Image Courtesy of Ms Jill Adams
I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Stuart Gibbs, who has done so much for ladies football. Among his many and varied works is a very interesting article called 'The Captain And The Contortionist' which is all about the beginnings of the British Ladies Football Club. If you would like to see it, you will find it at:
https://www.playingpasts.co.uk/articles/football/the-captain-and-the-contortionist/
You can get in touch with Stuart at:
Twitter: @toad68
Facebook: www.facebook.com/stuart.gibbes.399
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-gibbs-aab42825/
From 1896 onwards, I began to perform full-time as Lily Flexmore. I worked my gymnastic and contortionist skills into my acrobatic dance stage routines. In fact, I became known as 'the India-Rubber-Girl'. I simply loved to sing and dance and, as time went on, I added a little comedy to my act.
Image Courtesy of Paul Duffett
Here I am, bending over backwards to please my audience!😊
The more astute among you will notice that my
palms are deliberately upturned.
This is to show that all of the tension and strain
of this position is being taken up by my heels and forehead.
Do not try this at home!
I started my international career in 1897 at age eighteen when I sailed aboard the SS Briton, a beautiful new ship, to Johannesburg, South Africa, to perform at the Empire Theatre.
I then began to tour Ireland, the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States.
In February of 1899, two days after my twentieth birthday, I married my sweetheart, George Ambrose White, in Bethnal Green, London. George worked in the newspaper industry, but he also also liked to take to the stage, performing as a professional comedian under the name of George Flexmore.
In December of 1907, George and I sailed to New York for an extended tour of the USA!
We sailed from Southampton aboard the White Star Line ‘RMS Adriatic’ which was captained by E.J. Smith, who would later be Master of the ill-fated 'Titanic.’
We arrived at New York in late December 1907, having spent Christmas aboard ship.
We went to Chicago first, followed by a month-long engagement at the New York Theatre. We got to New York a day late because the train on which we were travelling was involved in a wreck!
We then set off on what was known as the Orpheum Circuit Tour. This was a network of forty-five theatres across thirty-six US cities. I appeared in places such as Indiana, Tennessee, Kansas, Iowa and Missouri. I also included appearances in Winnipeg, Canada.
All-in-all, if you include the Atlantic crossings, George and I travelled over 17,000 miles on that tour. Not bad for a couple of kids from Clerkenwell!!!
Image Courtesy of Ms Karen Wall
When we got back from the United States, we toured Europe, including the Wintergarten and Apollo theatres in Berlin, the Hansa, Hamburg and the Union Theatre in Strassburg.
In March of 1912 I did a month-long engagement on the beautiful Côte d'Azur at the Municipal Casino, Beausoleil.
I followed a very busy schedule. In the UK in a typical year, I gave 280 to 300 performances, travelling nearly 4,000 miles around the British theatre circuits.
I was still performing my signature ‘Toe-In-Mouth’ dance in March of 1925 when I was forty-six years old.
Image Courtesy of Ms Karen Wall
After a very hectic career, George and I lived quietly on Colebrooke Row in Islington. There is a lovely park there, and we could take the path down to the beautiful Regent's Canal for long walks. Our local pubs were the York, on Islington High Street, and the Gerrard Arms (now a private dwelling). It was a lovely time in our lives. George had become an agent for Independent Newspapers, based in Fleet Street. He had many theatrical clients, mostly in the West End, among whom he was very popular.
Then, without warning, on that awful Tuesday, September 26th, 1933, George set off for work as usual. Sometime during the day, he became very ill and was rushed to hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery. The doctors could not save him, and he died that same day at the age of 54 years.
At George's funeral, on Monday, October 2nd, no less than 40 newspaper vans followed the procession.
I was absolutely devastated to lose George, and I became quite ill shortly afterwards. My condition worsened and I developed meningitis and pneumonia, from which I was unable to recover.
Barely four months after George's death, I myself passed away, on Friday, January 19th, 1934, at Whittington Hospital, (known as St. Mary's in the 1930's) at 77a Highgate Hill, Islington, London.
George and I were re-united on Thursday, January 25th. We are interred together on Central Road in Islington Cemetery, plot number L/3/14781/P.
Members of the family recently found our grave and did a wonderful job of tidying up 90 years of nature's efforts to reclaim it.
Image Courtesy of Ms Karen Wall
Once again, thank you so very much for visiting and listening to my story.
Please do get in touch if you feel you could add any details. If you would like to see my Life Story in more detail, please visit me at Ancestry at the link below.
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/190999003/person/352488901036/story
All my love,
Ellen.❤️❤️❤️
Image Courtesy of Ms Cathy McBrearty
