Victoria Monks Appears at the Empire Theatre

Victoria Annie Monks, born in Blackpool on 1 November 1882, was a prominent music hall singer in the early 20th century. During the Edwardian era and the First World War, she gained recognition for performing and recording popular songs such as Take Me Back to London Town and Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home?

The daughter of optician Andrew Thomas Monks, she was educated in both England and Belgium. Her early performances were recorded in the Blackpool Gazette & Herald on 13 August 1897, where she was billed as “Little Victoria” at the Empire, Blackpool. She made her London debut on 9 March 1903 at the Oxford Music Hall and soon established herself on the circuit, appearing in leading music halls across London, the provinces, and internationally in South Africa and the United States. In 1904, she married American songwriter and music hall agent Karl F. Hooper (real name Karl Frederick Gruhler) in Dundee. By 1911, they were living in Lambeth, London, with their son. However, their marriage ended in divorce, which was finalised on 12 January 1914.

Monks’ career was cut short in 1915 following an accident involving a stage door at one of the Moss Empires theatres, leaving her unable to work. Soon after, she was declared bankrupt.She passed away in London on 26 January 1927 and was laid to rest in St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Cemetery near Harlesden. She is also commemorated on the Monks family grave in Layton Cemetery, Blackpool, where her name was mistakenly recorded as “Gruller,” a misspelling of Gruhler.

On 19 April 2024, a blue plaque honouring Victoria Monks was unveiled at her former home in Blackpool by Jodie Jodie Prenger.