Fred Albert

Born in Hoxton, he worked in a merchants' office in the City of London before making his earliest appearances on stage at Hoxton Hall in the 1860s.^[2] He was known as an "infallible mirth-maker", and had a reputation for correctly reflecting public opinion.^[3] His manner was formal – he had a waxed moustache and wore white tie and tails, and his apparent stiffness gave rise to a false rumour that he had a wooden leg.^[3]

All of his material was self-penned; much was improvised, and dealt with current news. He was known as a "lightning" vocalist, being able to sing three topical songs in five minutes.^[4] One of his pieces, "The Latest Events of the Year", was regularly updated. Another of his songs, "Perverted Proverbs or Tupperny Philosophy", was a satire on the popular book Proverbial Philosophy by Martin Tupper.^[2] His other songs included "I Knew That I Was Dreaming", "The Mad Butcher". and "Take Care of the Pence".^[5][6] By the 1870s, he included much patriotic and political material such as "The Turkey and the Bear" into his performances.^[1]

For some years he performed with piano accompanist Lottie Cherry, sometimes billed as 'Mrs Fred Albert'; although they had a son together, they never married, and she later married a music hall proprietor, James Graydon.^[7]

Fred Albert died in 1886, aged 42, after a short and sudden illness, and was buried at Abney Park Cemetery. His grave was restored in 2013 by the Music Hall Guild.^[7][8]