Solo Women
Bella Lloyd 1877 - 1962
Not a Lloyd at all but involved with the family for most of her life
(This page is accessed through links for Bella Burge, Bella Lane, Bella Lloyd and Leah Belle Orchard, all names used by the same person. Frederick Denny)
The name of music hall performer Bella Lloyd is long since forgotten. Yet even today a flicker of interest is shown when the famous name of Lloyd is mentioned. But to get the record straight, Bella Lloyd, although friendly with the Lloyd Family, or perhaps we should say Wood family, for over fifty years, was not related to them.
Leah Belle Orchard was born in New York on 29, September 1877, and came to London in 1882. She soon settled down in her new surroundings and the name Bella, given to her by her new school friends was to remain with her for the rest of her life.
As she grew up, Bella decided that she wanted to go on the stage and nothing was going to stop her. Her schooling came to an abrupt end at the age of eleven and a half, when she secured an engagement at the old Pavilion, Whitechapel Road, Stepney for a Christmas pantomime. It was here that she met fellow performers Gracie & Alice Lloyd. They look an immediate liking to her and invited her home to tea. Thus began her long and happy association with the Lloyd family.
Soon after, Marie suggested that Bella move in with them permanently and before long she was working as Marie's dresser. Although Bella enjoyed being with Marie, the call of the stage was an even greater attraction. At that time Rosie Lloyd was looking round for a partner to continue the act of The Sisters Lloyd, and Bella gratefully accepted Rosie's suggestion that they should perform together.
They were an immediate success and after a while embarked on a long and happy tour of the theatres of South Africa. It was there that they caught the eye of diamond millionaire Barney Barnato, who showered presents upon them every time he visited a theatre at which they were playing.
Eventually, it was time for them to return to England and they continued their success, appearing at the halls in and around London.
An important event occurred in Bella's life in the summer of 1901 when she was playing at Gatti's in the Westminster Bridge Road. Appearing on the same bill was a handsome, well built boxer by the name of Dick Burge.
Bella and Dick Burge were immediately attracted to each other and, after a short courtship, they were married at Brixton Registry Office on 26 October, 1901. Everything looked set for a bright future for the pair, but disaster was to strike shortly.
In less than a month, on 24 November to be exact, Dick Burge was arrested. He was indicted, tried and jailed for ten years for the biggest bank fraud then known.
Bella promised her husband that she would wait for him and decided that the best way to make the time pass quickly would be to throw herself into her stage work. She and Rosie had split up and she had been doing a single act under the name of Bella Lloyd. However, she felt that it would now be prudent to assume a different name following the recent unwanted publicity. From March 1902 she chose to continue her career under the name of Bella Lane. Bella had no difficulty in obtaining work. The big guns of the entertainment world, Sir Oswald Stoll, Walter De Frece, Edward Moss, were all anxious to help and she secured good bookings at the premier halls. However, she always refused to go back to Gatti's, the hall where she had first met her husband.
Burge proved to be a model prisoner, and was highly commended for risking his life to safeguard a warder during a disturbance. To Bella's delight, he was released prematurely, in June 1909. Two weeks later she made her very last stage appearance, at the Brighton Alhambra. After a happy reunion the couple got down to deciding their future. It was obvious that, at the age of fourty four, Dick's boxing days were over. They decided on the next best thing. Dick would become a boxing promoter.
Details of their life at this stage and given in a separate page devoted to Dick Burge.
Business was slow at first until Bella thought of opening a soup kitchen for the poor of the district. The idea was to bring them into the building before the boxing commenced. She asked for volunteers from her friends of music hall days and before long, stars such as Sam Mayo, Marie Lloyd and Marie's husband Alec Hurley, were to be found ladling out the free soup, and passing thick slices of bread around. By October, the RING was established and running three shows a week. As the RING became more popular, the money began to roll in. Bella could now afford a personal maid. She bought a houseboat on the Thames where she held small parties at weekends. One thing that marred the Burges' enjoyable life was the death of Alec Hurley in London at Jack Straw's Castle on December 1913. Marie was away in Chicago with the new man in her life, Bernard Dillon. Alec had little or no money at the time of his death. He an Dick had been good friends and it was typical of Burge that he settled all Hurley's outstanding debts from his own pocket.
At the outbreak of war Burge volunteered a joined the Sportsmen's Battalion of a Surry regiment and, whilst on duty he caught double pneumonia and died on 15th May 1918.
On his death bed he asked Bella if she would promise to carry on the RING when he had gone. It was with a heavy heart and considerable trepidation that she said 'yes". As they had done once before Bella's friends rallied round her and although it was by no means easy, she managed, as a lady in man's world of boxing, to make a success of running the RING on her own.
There were of course ups and downs in her new life, one of these the the death of her good friend, Marie Lloyd, 7th October, 1922.
There were two memorable happy dates for Bella. On 13 October, 1928 boxing was made respectable and given a royal command performance when the Prince of Wales made an official visit to the RING.
Another red letter was 29 April, 1935, when the RING celebrated its Grand Jubilee. During the evening, apart from some spectacular boxing, an impromptu show was given by some of Bella's former music hall colleagues including, of course, some of the Lloyd family. Present that evening were Alice Lloyd's daughter Mrs. Tommie Thomas.
However, times were changing and the old fashioned and primitive facilities of the RING not to the liking of the more sophisticated generation growing up. Early in 1939, a situation arose which Bella had seen coming for a long while. One evening there was insufficient money to pay the staff and boxers. She started drawing or personal savings and when these were exhausted she began to pawn her jewellery. The RING closed ostensibly for a complete refurbishment and redecoration but the outbreak of war put a stop to that. A German bomber made a direct hit on the RING in October 1940, reducing the old building to a heap of rubble. At this time, Bella was living in a tiny top floor bed-sitter in Bloomsbury Street. Alice Lloyd, who was now living in Banstead with her daughters, tried to persuade Bella to move in with her. The offer was tempting but she was reluctant to leave London. A happy compromise was reached. Bella stayed in her flat from Monday to Friday and then travelled down to Banstead for the weekends.
After the war she carried on in a set routine. Most of her days were lonely; so many of her friends had gone. However, London was not going to allow her to be forgotten. On 20 October 1958, she was persuaded to put her best dress on and attend the BBC Television Theatre for what she thought was going to be a programme about boxing. Nobody could have been more surprised when Eamonn Andrews appeared waving his red book and Bella found herself the subject of a ‘This Is Your Life’ programme. Among her guests were members of the boxing fraternity and the remaining members of the Lloyd sisters, Gracie, Annie, Daisy Wood, along with Marie Lloyd junior. The final guest on the programme was Bud Flanagan.
Another milestone in Bella's life was the week commencing 20 March 1961. Every afternoon, when she had taken her nap, she toddled down to the newspaper man on the corner and purchased the early edition of the evening paper. Then, over a cup of tea, she would read each instalment of her life story which was being serialised in The Evening News.
She died quite suddenly the next year aged 85. The little old lady known by many thousands of music hall and boxing lovers as Bella of Blackfriars.
Condensed from an article by Max Tyler in Call Boy (Journal of the British Music Hall Society), Summer 1997
Anyone interested in learning more about Bella Lloyd and her association with the Lloyd family should read 'Bella of Blackfriars' A biography by Leslie Bell. Published 1961 by Odhams Press.
Anyone interested in learning more about Dick Burge and the Ring can obtain an excellent little booklet 'Box On' by Stephen Powell, obtainable from The Ring Public House, 72 Blackfriars Road, London SE 1 8HA.