Mrs F. R. Phillips

Mrs F. R. Phillips (born Mary Ann Dunn, 1830 – 10 December 1899) was an English entertainer and songwriter, who was one of the music halls' first female performers.

Biography She was born in 1830, in Tottenham, and in 1853 married Frederick Powys Royle, described as a "professor of music". By the early 1860s, she had become a popular performer at music halls in London. Mrs Phillips' version alluded to the supposed ban on Irish men working at the Great Exhibition in 1851. One version of Mrs Phillips' lyrics included these verses: A review in The Era in 1872 said of her: "This lady has been long before the public and she is, without question, one of that public's greatest favourites. Strange to say, she has achieved her position without the aid of a good voice... [But] Mrs Phillips has a style peculiarly her own and her songs are invariably so well written and are given with such expression that she never fails to take her audience by storm."