A bit of confusion here. Vesta Tilley sang a song called 'Burlington Bertie', about a regular West End swell (toff). This song was was by Harry Norris, published in 1900. Ella Shields, also a male impersonator, sang a burlesque called 'Burlington Bertie from Bow' by William Hargreaves, published in 1914. This later Bertie was a shabby near-tramp ('so long without food I've forgot where my face is') and this is the song quoted at length by Roger and Steve, above.

I saw Ella Shields on stagein the 1950s singing BB from B, but claim no credit for these details, which were easily recovered from Michael Kilgarriff's monumental 'Sing Us One of the Old Songs' 1989, an essential time-saving reference for anyone interested in songs of this kind.

Both Tilley and Shields recorded their songs and both areavailable on modern CDs