Millie Lindon (born Fanny Elizabeth Warriss, 1 April 1869 – 11 March 1940) was an English

music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as variety. Perceptions of a distinction in Bri ...

singer and socialite. According to cultural historian

Richard Anthony Baker Richard Anthony Baker (9 February 1946 – 12 November 2016) was a British radio producer, presenter and author. He was born in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. His father was a London-born music hall performer who used the stage name Will Keogh; and hi ...

, her life was the "most astounding example of social re-invention" among music hall performers who, previously, had been "regarded socially as the lowest of the low".Richard Anthony Baker, "Music hall of fame - Millie Lindon", ''The Stage'', 25 October 2005
Retrieved 29 August 2020

Biography

She was born in

Small Heath Small Heath is an area in south-east Birmingham, West Midlands, England situated on and around the Coventry Road about from the city centre. History Small Heath, which has been settled and used since Roman times, sits on top of a small hill. Th ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, the daughter of a tailor, John H. Warriss and his wife, born Frances Millicent Lindon. She was a cousin of the

Rudge Sisters The Rudge Sisters were British actresses and dancers from Birmingham. Their father, Henry Rudge, was a brass founder and chandelier maker. Their mother, Elizabeth, had a brief acting career in the Birmingham area. They also had two brothers wh ...

. Although some sources suggest her year of birth was 1878, official records show that she was born in 1869. She began working in music halls under the name Millie Lindon (a version of her mother's maiden name), and in 1895 married another music hall performer, the "eccentric comedian and contortionist" T. E. Dunville (Thomas Edward Wallen), who then managed her career. At the time of their marriage, she used the name Florence Elizabeth Millicent Warriss, and understated her age by several years. Her most popular song was "For Old Times' Sake", a sentimental song written by Charles Osborne, in 1898, but her professional career was relatively short and unremarkable. She and Dunville divorced in 1902; he later killed himself. "Millie Lindon (1869-1940)", ''Stage Beauty''
Retrieved 29 August 2020 In 1906 and 1909, she had two children with newspaper owner,

Edward Hulton Sir Edward George Stephen Hulton, 1st Baronet (3 March 1869 – 23 May 1925) was a British newspaper proprietor and thoroughbred racehorse owner. In 1921, he was awarded a baronetcy, of Downside in the parish of Leatherhead in Surrey, for p ...

, the founder of the ''

Daily Sketch The ''Daily Sketch'' was a British national tabloid newspaper, founded in Manchester in 1909 by Sir Edward Hulton. It was bought in 1920 by Lord Rothermere's Daily Mirror Newspapers, but in 1925 Rothermere sold it to William and Gomer Berry ...

'', who was himself married at the time. Hulton and Minnie Lindon, who at that point used the name Miss Warris-Lindon, married in 1916, but he died in 1925. She claimed to their son, the publisher

Edward George Warris Hulton Sir Edward George Warris Hulton (29 November 1906 – 8 October 1988) was a British magazine publisher and writer. Early life Hulton was born to Sir Edward Hulton, 1st Baronet, a newspaper publisher and racehorse owner originally from Mancheste ...

, that she was descended from an aristocratic Spanish family, de Warris. In his autobiography, he gave a vivid account of her lifestyle – "In the morning, she spent an hour or two making up her face, ate an enormous breakfast, wrote letters and pottered about among her rococo furniture before driving to lunch. She was well known at all the fashionable restaurants of the day, such as

Quaglino's Quaglino's is a restaurant in central London which was founded in 1929, closed in 1977, and revived in 1993. From the 1930s through the 1950s, it was popular among the British aristocracy, including the royal family, many of whom were regulars ...

." He also referred to a succession of her "gentleman friends", including a former president of Peru, a Uruguayan colonel, and a military man who she claimed was the original " Galloping Major" of the popular song. After Edward Hulton's death, she married Major General John Thompson in 1928; the couple divorced in 1937. She then married a Czech nobleman, Baron Otto Sklenář von Scaniel, in 1938. She died in

Taormina Taormina ( , , also , ; scn, Taurmina) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Messina, on the east coast of the island of Sicily, Italy. Taormina has been a tourist destination since the 19th century. Its beaches on ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, in 1940. Her remains were returned to England, and she was buried at

Putney Vale Cemetery Putney Vale Cemetery and Crematorium in southwest London is located in Putney Vale, surrounded by Putney Heath and Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park. It is located within of parkland. The cemetery was opened in 1891 and the crematorium in 1938. ...

.Millie Lindon, ''Music Hall and Variety Artistes Burial Places''
Retrieved 29 August 2020

References

External links

*
Portraits
at National Portrait Gallery {{DEFAULTSORT:Lindon, Millie 1869 births 1940 deaths English women singers Music hall performers Burials at Putney Vale Cemetery Wives of baronets