Dockyard Doris
Dockyard Doris at the Brick Lane music hall
I first saw Colin Devereaux performing at the Lord Hood pub in the early 1980’s. Off stage Colin was a quiet and sensitive man. On stage as Dockyard Doris he was an outrageous performer with a wide repertoire influenced by music hall traditions.
Dockyard Doris at the Brick Lane music hall
Colin regularly appeared in pantomimes and was a regular performer at the Brick Lane music hall set up by Vincent Hayes in the 1990’s.
Dockyard Doris at the Brick Lane music hall in Brick Lane
These photographs were taken at the Brick Lane music hall in the mid 1990’s. The music hall has now moved from Brick Lane to a magnificent Victorian church in Canning town. It is now the only fully functioning music hall venue in the UK.
Peter John and Dockyard Doris at the Brick Lane music hall
Colin Devereaux had a thirty year career in show business which included radio and TV appearances. After a long fight with cancer he died in 2001 aged 50.
Peter John and Dockyard Doris at the Brick Lane music Hall
I recall visiting him in his home in the 1990’s in Stepney. He was extremely knowledgeable about the history of music hall and he viewed himself as part of that rich tradition.
The late great Dockyard Doris, what a lovely set of photos. I watched his swan song at Brighton Pride 2001, little did his adoring fans know it was the last big outing Doris was to have…. sadly Colin died shortly afterwards. A true drag star R.I.P. xx
Thank you for sharing.
Colin was one of if not the best Drag Queen on the circuit. A great guy, rely talented and a very nice guy to talk to. He was soavery intelligent man. Very different in his private life than his stage life. I have had some good times watching him in London, Brighton, Portsmouth a d Southampton. Very sharp witted and always had a good answer if eve he was heckled. He was also brilliant in Panto, we’ve seen him in the gay Panto in Brighton many times and had a drink with him after. Always had time for his fans. Such a great shame he left us so early in life. Unfortunately, we have lost so many of them now and the drag circuit has even declined so much without the likes of Dockyard Doris(Colin), The great Phil Starr and so many more that were so brilliant in the 89s and 90s. A great shame as they can never be reached.
Great photos of Dockyard Doris! He was very talented and such a shame he died so young.
I hear that Colin was related in some way to music hall singer/comedian Alec Hurley (second husband of Marie Lloyd) and I’m also related to Alec. Does anyone know how Colin and Alec were related?
It might be worth looking through one of the Marie Lloyd biographies at the library. I read a particularly authorative one and her life is well documented. You could also try Vincent Hayes at the Music Hall who might know more.
The book I read was called The One and Only Marie Lloyd by M Gilles. I also heard Colin mention to Lloyd connection (as did Phil Star, a close friend and fellow performer). Another lead might be Roy Hudd who has an enclopedic knowledge of this area and is very approachable (and jolly nice chap). Be warned that some of Ms Lloyd partners come out poorly in the way they treated her. Good luck.
What fab pictures of dear Colin. Colin was such a nice guy and left us so young, I still miss his acidic wit. I was often the butt of his jokes when I worked in the Noahs Ark, Windsor where he appeared regularly.
Re the Marie Lloyd connection – he is quoted in a book about her life but sorry, I don’t have a copy to refer to. I thought he was more closely related to her but I stand to be corrected.
Some lovely memories of Colin when working at the Lord Hood in the 80s, then seeing him perform for several years at the Sebright Arms off Hackney Rd. Lovely guy and much missed.
I met colin in a pub in Scarborough and we became friends in the late eighties he invited me to stay with him many times inLondon at his flat .He also got me a personal chat with Charlie Drake . He was a lovely kind generous funny man that i miss dearly David from Harrogate
Hi David, you are right. He was a wonderful human being.
yes when he came to leeds ihad breakfast with him at the queens hotel and I once went to London on my birthday and we spent the morning in the Turkish and he bought me a mixed grill at a bethnel green restaurant happy days I adored him!
Itoo am dying of cancer and it is just nice to remeniss
I first met Colin in 1969 when I moved into 79 Florence Road, Finsbury Park. I was 18 years old and rented a bedsitter on the ground floor £4:00 a week. Colin had a room on the first floor. We became great friends, inseparable and according to him “sisters” and we went every where together. At that time he worked for Bernard Delfont in the box office selling theatre tickets and was sacked when he accidently let it slip to an Evening News reporter that Clodagh Rogers’s contract was being terminated. Bernard planned and wanted the news to be on the front page of the Sunday papers unfortunately, Colin let it slip on the Friday afternoon and therefore was headlines that Friday night. That was when he decided to do drag for a living, he used to do it for us his friends in our rooms and occasionally at the YMCA amateur group in Crouch End. I spent a week at his bedside in the hospice only going home to feed my dogs. I was with him holding his hand when he passed and to this day 15 April 2017 miss him very much.
It was 72 Florence Road not 79
I first met Colin in 1969 when he turned up to be a room mate for a short period in a hostel I was staying in at 38 Lancaster Gate. Back then he was working at a hotel nearby in Bayswater and a few times connected me via the hotel telephone switch board to a girlfriend that I had in Helsinki Finland. He often called himself Colin De Vere. He was really colourful, flamboyant and a real camp young man. I never saw him again after 1969 until he was featured in a tv documentary. It was a friend from my school days who is also a performer at the Brick Lane Music Hall that told me of Colin’s passing.
My high school drama group made a trip to London in the spring of 1984 and one evening we had one of those Henry VIII dinner banquets. I may be conflating two memories of that trip, but I think that’s also where Dockyard Doris was performing. I remember she was hilarious and I still have the postcard with her photo on it. I’m sad to learn the performer passed away so young. He was so funny as Doris and it’s still such a vivid memory to me after all these years. RIP.
You’re not mistaken Chris. The venue was the Beefeater by the Tower, a medieval banquet hall, at St Katharine’s Dock, London. I was working there at the same time and Colin was a kind, gentle person liked and loved by men and women alike.
I forgot to add that it was my first trip outside the United States (Atlanta, GA).
Stonehenge, Oxford, the musical “Blondel”, and Dockyard Doris are my most vivid memories.
Dockyard Doris was a legend in her own life time and is greatly missed. It’s great that she remains a ‘vivid’ memory from your school drama trip in 1984!
Ah the Lord Hood spent some great times in there
RIP DD x
Colin was one of if not the best Drag Queen on the circuit. A great guy, rely talented and a very nice guy to talk to. He was soavery intelligent man. Very different in his private life than his stage life. I have had some good times watching him in London, Brighton, Portsmouth a d Southampton. Very sharp witted and always had a good answer if eve he was heckled. He was also brilliant in Panto, we’ve seen him in the gay Panto in Brighton many times and had a drink with him after. Always had time for his fans. Such a great shame he left us so early in life. Unfortunately, we have lost so many of them now and the drag circuit has even declined so much without the likes of Dockyard Doris(Colin), The great Phil Starr and so many more that were so brilliant in the 89s and 90s. A great shame as they can never be reached.