Tale Two

Vaudeville female impersonators were usually solo performers, but Hastings County was the home base for a trio of singers known as The Belles of Belleville.

From left to right, these were Arthur Jackson, Charlie Talbot and Frederick Pierce. They would have performed in local theatres, where cross-dressing performers were a popular form of entertainment in the early 1900s.

Charlie Talbot signed up to fight in the First World War and was killed during the Battle of Amiens while working as a stretcher-bearer.