By Kathy Taylor

Anna Neagle was born Florence Marjorie Robertson on 20th October 1904 in Glenparke Road, Forest Gate. Her family later moved to Upton Lane, Forest Gate. She attended Park Primary School. Anna became one of the biggest and brightest celebrities of her time.  

Always considered an actress of limited abilities, the lovely Anna nevertheless would prove to be a sensational box-office commodity for nearly two decades. She added glamour and sophistication for war-torn London audiences and her lightweight musicals, comedies and even costumed historical dramas provided a nicely balanced escape route. The tasteful, ladylike heroines she portrayed included nurses Edith Cavell and Florence Nightingale, flyer Amy Johnson and undercover spy Odette; Nell Gwyn and Queen Victoria also fell within her grasp. She appeared in a number of frothy post-war retreads co-starring  Michael Wilding that the critics turned their noses on but the audiences loved.

 She studied dance as a child and first appeared on stage in 1917. In 1925 joined the chorus line in the C.B. Cochran revues and from 1930 she used her mother’s name as her stage name. Whilst appearing in Stand Up and Sign with Jack Buchanan she was spotted by director Herbert Wilcox, her future husband, when he was in the audience. He realised that she had talent and offered to put her in his films. The couple married in 1943 and he directed films for her for the rest of her career. 

Her first film was, Goodnight Vienna (1932). Then, under the tutelage of her husband, she emerged as a major star of historical film dramas such as Bitter Sweet (1933); Victoria, the Great (1937); London Melody (1937). In 1939 Anna Neagle went to Hollywood and made Nurse Edith Cavell (1939); and No No Nanette (1940). She was the first actress to appear on the cover of Life magazine. Returning to Britain in 1941, she made They Flew Alone, the life of Amy Johnson, and Yellow Canary (1943) about a suspected spy.

Her most famous roles were the dramas and musical romances of the upper classes known as the 'Mayfair' films, I Live in Grosvenor Square (1945); Piccadilly Incident (1946); The Courtneys of Curzon Street (1947); Spring in Park Lane (1948) and Maytime in Mayfair (1949).

She went on to play the heroine in the film Odette (1950) about the French undercover agent tortured by the Nazis; and the part of Florence Nightingale in The Lady With the Lamp (1951); King's Rhapsody (1955). She retired from the screen in 1958

She retained the affection of British audiences with her 2,062 consecutive appearances on stage in Charlie Girl (1965-71) which is in the Guinness Book of Records; No, No, Nanette (1973), and My Fair Lady (1978-9).  

She was a cousin of the Queen via her descent from an illegitimate daughter of Queen Victoria's uncle. For many years she lived in Lewes Crescent, Brighton with her film director husband Herbert Wilcox. She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1969. After a long illness, she died in Surrey in 1986 and is buried in the City of London Cemetery in the same grave as her parents and husband.