Lilian Shelley

Lilian Shelley (born Lilian Milsom) (1892 - after 1933) was a popular music hall entertainer and later artists' model in London in the early 1900s known as "The Bug" or "The Pocket Edition". She posed for Jacob Epstein and Augustus John. John's portrait of Shelley was described as one of the "star turns" in an exhibition Pictures of Women at the Wildenstein Galleries, London, in 1940. He called her "Bill".

Shelley was born in a Bristol public house in 1892. According to later newspaper reports she had to teach herself to read and write. The 1901 British census records the family living at 2 Christmas Steps, Bristol, with Albert Milsom (aged 34) as the head of the household together with his wife Mary (aged 32), a son Albert (aged 8) and Lilian (aged 8).

Shelley was a successful musical hall performer dubbed as "Crazy Lilian Shelley. The Merry, Mad, Magnetic Comedienne." She was known for "My Little Popsy-Wopsy", a popular Edwardian song, and "You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)" (1913) which had been popularised by Al Jolson. Shelley was represented by the Rolls-Darewski agency and appeared in London and regional shows with performers from the same stable such as American violinist Jay Whidden and George Clarke ("London's leading Dude"). In 1913/14 she toured in the revue Step This Way which appeared in Birmingham, Sheffield and Scotland, and probably elsewhere, as one of the main acts mentioned in the billing. She was one of the entertainers photographed by Walter Benington.

In 1914, Shelley married the artist John P. Flanagan in Marylebone district, London, under her real name of Milsom.

Shelley was a contemporary of the other artists' models Betty May, Euphemia Lamb and Dolores, both of whom also posed for Epstein, and like Dolores she sang and danced at Madame Strindberg's The Cave of the Golden Calf (1912–1914). One of her jobs at the Cave was to visit the Savoy Hotel each evening to feed Madame Strindberg's monkey. According to Nina Hamnett, in 1914 Lilian Shelley and Betty May were the "principal supports" of the Crab Tree Club. There also, she would sing "Popsy-Wopsy".

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