Lily Morris
1882 - 1952
Lily Morris was born Lilles Mary Crosby in the Holborn area, London, on September 30th 1882. Some references say either 1883 or 1884 but she appears in the Holborn 1882 register of births. An 1891 census shows her living (at the age of 8) with her family at 16 Eagle Dwellings, City Road. The household also included her father, Maurice (37), who was a cigar maker; her mother, Mary Ann (33), who was from Scotland and was a cap maker; a sister, Catherine (13), who was a milliners assistant and a brother, Maurice (11), who was a scholar. Also living in the household was her paternal grandfather, William (65), who was a widower and who had been a bricklayer. He was born in Co. Kerry, Ireland.
By the time of a 1901 census they had moved to 146 High Street, Hackney in East London. Brother Maurice was shown as a shop assistant in a tobacconists in Hoxton. Lily was shown as a Music Hall Artiste.
In 1902 Lily's younger sister Catherine married William Moncrieff. By the time of Lily's death she was living in Perthshire.
By the age of 10 Lily had established herself as a performer and she was appearing in Pantomime at Drury Lane. The playbill to the right comes from 1894 and Lily would have been 12 years old. Here she is billed as a 'Burlesque Artist'. By the age of 19 in 1902 she had become a star. So where did the name of Morris come from? We know that she was involved with a man called Benjamin Morris and they had a son, Leonard. He died in 2005. There are still surviving members of the Morris family including great-grandchildren. No further dates or information are currently available. However she was using the name Morris from a very early age (10) so this is hardly likely to be the reason. What is more likely is that she used her father's name, Maurice, and changed the spelling. She did finally marry and this was to Archibald McDougall. They were married on February 18th 1907. Archie eventually retired from his regular job and became Lily's full time manager. He died on August 17th 1952. Lily had a long and successful career both as a soubrette and as a Principal Boy in pantomime. There are pictures of her in various pantomimes in the Gallery section. By 1917 she had returned to her Music Hall roots and had established herself as a chorus singer/comedienne. There are some examples of her sheet music in the Music Library. Records. By 1919 Lily had started recording gramophone records. In 1925 she visited America where she stopped the show at the New York Hippodrome with so many encores that she had to make a little curtain speech. An eye witness at the time reported: “every word and syllable she utters is a joy to the ear.” In 1927 Lily was honoured by appearing in front of the King & Queen in the Royal Performance at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London.
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Lily's first appearance on film was in the 1930 'Elstree Calling'. It was in this film, which was intended as a revue to demonstrate British sound films, that she sang her signature piece 'Why Am I Always the Bridesmaid?'. Her last film appearance was in 1941. Further details of her films can be found in the Film Section. |
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By the 1940s she had all but retired. Following the death of Nellie Wallace in 1948 she was persuaded out of retirement for Don Ross's revival show 'Thanks for the Memory'. In the early 50s she fell ill and pulled out of the show. Lily Died on October 3rd 1952, just two months after the death of her husband Archie. She is buried in Southgate Cemetery in the name of McDougall in plot D1472. She will not be forgotten. Acknowledgement: Much of this brief biography was compiled from information found on the internet and elsewhere and originally researched by others. Recognition and thanks is hereby given to those others for their hard work. Website & Contents (except where otherwise stated) is Copyright © 2008-2009 The Lily Morris Website |
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