THE TARPAULIN JACKET
Is there anything you are desperately yearning to know? Are there any pressing factual disputes you would like us to help resolve? This is the page where we shall do our best to answer any questions you throw at us, whatever the subject.
QB Jay,Wanstead, East London
AVesta Tilley was born Matilda Powles inWorcester in 1864, the second of 13 children.
The city has a bronze statue of her, which is richly deserved because she was a music hall sensation, even making it in the US.
Little Matilda first sang on stage aged three and by six she was appearing in male clothing. Her stage name came from theVesta brand of matches.
She would dress up as everything from naughty boys to fops in top hats but was given the nickname “Britain’s best recruiting sergeant” after performing in military uniform during the First World War.
Young men were often asked to sign up on stage during her shows – 300 were recruited in one show alone. She was the biggest name on the panto circuit too, especially as Dick Whittington.
The Piccadilly Johnny With The Little Glass Eye and Following In Father’s Footsteps were her two biggest songs.
Vesta became the highestearning woman in Britain, so was able to support her family and various good causes.
She married theatre owner Walter de Frece in 1890 who went on to become a Tory MP for Ashtonunder-Lyne and Blackpool.
He was knighted, making his male impersonator wife a lady.
They lived in Monte Carlo for a while but she died in London on September 16, 1952, aged 88. She is buried next to her husband at PutneyVale Cemetery.
QFrances Beech, Bristol
AAs well as soaking, all sorts of clever things are going on during these pauses. High-end washers will be monitoring conditions – detecting load size and water usage, increasing or maintaining temperatures or sorting out excessive suds.
They have come a long way since the first washing machines, back in the 1850s.William Blackstone from Indiana built one for his wife for her birthday, comprising a crank handle and pegs inside a wooden tub to twist clothes around.
That basic device really did start a revolution.
Some economists claim the washing machine was a bigger game-changer than the internet, giving women time and allowing them to read, learn and enter the jobs market.
Worldwide, two billion people have access to a washing machine, leaving five billion washing by hand.A study in Peru found some women were spending six hours a day, three days a week, doing this boring, back-breaking work.
QMrs L Copping,Weston-superMare, Somerset
AThe “trooper” has become a bit of a catch-all, covering everything from working to swearing. It has been in use at least since the early 18th century, when British cavalrymen earned a bit of a reputation for cursing – it was noted in the 1727 book The Devil To Pay At St James’s.
But you can also be “a real trouper”, when you are being dependable and powering on in the face of adversity.
This originates from being in a theatre troupe, where a veteran actor would take to the stage, uncomplaining, even if they were unwell, so the show could go on.
A trooper is also seen as someone who has courage, is determined and does something with real gusto, whereas a trouper is someone who is reliable.
So it could be argued you could swear both like a trooper and a trouper.
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● We cannot promise replies to everyone but the best will feature on this page. (G.J. Whyte-Melville / Charles Coote) (19th Century English) A tall stalwart lancer lay dying, And as on his deathbed did lay,To his friends who around him were sighing, These last dying words he did say:
Wrap me up in my tarpaulin jacket, And say a poor buffer lies low; And six stalwart lancers shall carry me With steps solemn, mournful and slow
Had I the wings of a little dove, Far away I would fly,
I’d fly, Start for the arms of my true lover And there I would lay me and die.
Then get you two little white tombstones, Put them at my head and my toe, my toe, And get you a penknife and scratch there: ‘Here lies a poor buffer below.’
And get you six brandies and sodas, And set them all out in a row, a row, And get you six jolly good fellows
To drink to this buffer below.
And then in the calm of the twilight When the soft winds are whispering low, so low, And the darkening shadows are falling, Sometimes think of this buffer below.
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