Albert Chevalier
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Albert Chevalier (March 21, 1861–July 10, 1923) was an English comedian and actor. In 1877 he was engaged as an actor under the Bancrofts in London, and for some years played legitimate parts at the Court Theatre and elsewhere. In 1891, however, he began a successful music hall career as a singer of coster songs of his own invention, a new type in which he had an immediate success, both in England and America. He subsequently organized an entertainment of his own, with sketches and songs, with which he went on tour, establishing a wide popularity as an original artist in his special line.
Chevalier performed several sentimental songs in his act; the most popular of these was "My Old Dutch", about an old man's long happy marriage to his wife. The song's title is based on Cockney rhyming slang: in this case, "Dutch" is a shortening of the phrase "Dutch plate", which rhymes with "mate". The singer's "old dutch" is therefore his spouse. Chevalier also starred in a film titled "My Old Dutch". (In an American version of the film where cockney slang isn't well known it is explained as being short for "My Old Dutchess")
[edit] Reference
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The Cockney rhyming slang for wife is "Duchess of Fife", whereas the Cockney rhyming slang for mate is "china plate", shortened to "china", just as "Duchess of Fife" is shortened to "Dutch". Your contributor clearly does not live within the sound of Bow Bells.
