12 Facts About Tom Leamore

Thomas Leamore was an English music hall and variety comic performer, dancer and singer.

Tom Leamore initially worked for a firm of wood carvers and gilders, but developed talents for clog and sand dancing.

Tom Leamore first appeared on stage in the early 1880s, perhaps at the Rodney Music Hall as early as 1880, though his first paid appearance came in 1884.

Tom Leamore quickly grew into a successful stage performer, singing comically and dancing eccentrically with clogs.

Tom Leamore made up his own patter and songs, and, by 1898, he had introduced a repertoire of characters.

Tom Leamore was engaged by the main London music halls as one of their leading attractions, sometimes performing in four different theatres each night.

Tom Leamore was the first music hall performer to make commercial recordings, for Berliner in 1898.

Tom Leamore's best known song was "Percy from Pimlico" which he composed and wrote himself in 1898.

Tom Leamore recorded the song in the 1930s, and was featured singing it in the 1968 documentary A Little of What You Fancy.

Tom Leamore continued to perform in the 1910s, but his career began to fade.

Tom Leamore toured South Africa in 1921, and Australia and New Zealand the following year, but by that time was seen as "quaint" and "old school".

Tom Leamore died in Lambeth Hospital in 1939, aged 72, and was buried in the Variety Plot at Streatham Park Cemetery.