Bessie Bellwood

Bessie Bellwood (30 March 1856 – 24 September 1896) (born Catherine Mahoney) was a popular music hall performer of the Victorian era noted for her singing of 'Coster' songs, including "What Cheer Ria." Her on stage persona was that of an abrasive but loveable character with an ability to argue down even the toughest of hecklers.

Born in London, she made her music hall debut in Bermondsey, London. She became popular with cockney working-class audiences and went on to appear on the same bill as Jenny Hill at the Canterbury Theatre of Varieties and Vesta Tilley at Gatti's Charing Cross Music Hall. Off-stage, she became a popular figure in London for her many charitable donations to the poor.

In later life, Bellwood suffered from alcoholism as a result of her financial troubles and bankruptcy. With her health in decline, she died at her home in London aged 40.

Bellwood was born in London to Patrick Mahoney and his wife Catherine (née Ready), both of whom originated from County Cork in Ireland, and who had married in November 1849. The couple had four daughters: Mary, Ellen, Catherine and Ann Mahoney, as well as a son, James Mahoney.

In 1876, aged 20, Catherine 'Kate' Mahoney assumed the stage name Bessie Bellwood and made her music hall debut at Bermondsey in London, where she had been a rabbit puller, or skin-dresser, in a local factory. Although she lacked the versatility of her rivals Marie Lloyd and Jenny Hill, she nevertheless became a popular performer noted for her 'saucy' stage manner and her ability to argue down even the toughest of hecklers, including a 15 stone coal-heaver who left the music hall where she was appearing after a five-minute dispute during her act. Her volatile, unpredictable nature was such that within four hours of having a devout conversation with Cardinal Manning about some Catholic charity or other she was shortly afterwards arrested in the Tottenham Court Road for knocking a down a cabman because she believed he had insulted the man she loved. A devout Roman Catholic, she was admired by her public for her many acts of kindness to the poor, which included paying for Masses for the dead and dying, giving away her own money and possessions, taking in laundry, cleaning homes and looking after children. On September 24, 1884 she married John Nicholson, a Commission Agent in the Register Office in Leeds. Little is known of Nicholson after the wedding and he does not seem to have played a major part in his wife's life.

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