George Formby Senior's birth location (4th October 1875 to 8th February 1921)

Everyone knows of the hugely successful entertainer George Formby but his dad - George Senior - was one of the greatest music hall performers of the early 20th century. We'll never know how brill he was as technology wasn’t advanced enough to record him. He toured the country's theatres making ample money to furnish the Formby home with a library and servants. The Formby kids wanted for nothing. Here I am outside the spot where George senior was born. The original buildings have all gone and some bland flats now sit where he was pushed out into the world.

Life was grim - he was the illegitimate and only child of Sarah Booth who weaved cotton and Francis who mined coal (they married six months after George’s birth.) Money was so scarce that George was malnourished and neglected. His four feet tall mum worked as a prostitute and amassed 140 convictions for theft, prostitution, drunkenness. George often slept outside when his mum was in police cell for the night. He spent so much time being cold he developed asthma and became susceptible to bronchitis. An early dead would come.

Aged 8 he left school unable to read for another decade. Desperate for food he sang on street corners for coppers. His dad died at just 33 and he got a job in a cotton mill building looms. He did this for two years but was always singing in alehouses. By 20 he was getting known around Lancashire. Aged 22 he got married to Martha Salter and changed his stage name to George Formby (he was really called James Booth.) Nobody knows why he chose this name - his manager may have suggested it or George may have made it up as he admired another music hall star George Robey. Some say he saw it painted on the side of a train carriage.

Aged 23 he appeared in theatres and met Eliza Hoy who was the daughter of the cashier at Wigan’s Empire Theatre. He married her even though he was already married and they would produce thirteen children (six of them didn’t make it.) They were an effective team - George honing is act and Eliza making his costumes by hand. Charlie Chaplin may have stolen "The Tramp" character from George for one of his characters was a gormless chap with big boots, a variety of hats, a twirling cane and a duck-like walk. Who knows but George once let a young Charlie Chaplin borrow one of his suits.

By 27 he'd made it to the London theatres and was earning £3 a week (about £300 now.) They loved him and within three years he'd be doing a season for £325 per week (£3250 now.) He was 29 when George Junior was born (he was blind due to an obstructive membrane but months later he had a violent coughing fit and could see.) Through his thirties George toured around the music halls across the UK. Often he’d earn about £4000 (in today’s money) in one week. He bought the rights to songs to gain ownership and by aged 38 record sales were strong enough for him to negotiate a lucrative new recording contract. In July 1913 he performed in front of King George V and Queen Mary at Knowsley Hall near Liverpool. At this time he never knew his son George Junior would become a star. He didn’t want him being an entertainer, said "one fool in the family is enough" and sent him away to become a jockey.

Age 41 he suffered a injury rehearsing at the Theatre Royal in London and it spelt the end. The stage collapsed and George was taken to hospital with a damaged lung and a pulmonary haemorrhage. Though he was back in the show within a week his tuberculosis had worsened and he started to miss shows. Aged 43 influenza swept across the country and George was caught in its claw. Though ill and bleeding internally he kept on performing with Eliza waiting in the wings to give him ice cubes to suck to stop the bleeding. In 1919 he collapsed on stage during a performance in Newcastle upon Tyne. The doctor advised him to move to South Africa where the sun would dry him out but he stayed and kept performing. In early 1921 he collapsed after a show at the Newcastle Empire and returned to his home near Warrington an ill man. He died at just 45.

I sat in the car near the blue plaque and wondered what the locality was like when George was a lad. This was where it all started.