Interesting People - Tom Major

Tom Major was the father of the former Prime Minister of the UK, John Major.  He was a trapeze artist, music-hall entertainer and the owner of a garden gnome factory.

(In his book, "The Old Man", John Major writes:

Tom spent nearly 30 years on the road as a music-hall artist, for much of that time the proprietor of his own show. He cut his teeth working in circuses and travelling galas, but in 1902 formed a double act with a singer and dancer called Kitty Grant, whom he later married – performing acrobatics, baton-twirling, patter, comic duets and comedy sketches. They became known as Drum and Major, and topped the bill at big halls such as the Leeds City Varieties. Forty years later, Major was the name on his son's birth certificate.

But Kitty wasn't John Major's mother. That distinction fell to Gwen Coates, a Lincolnshire girl who joined the company as a dancer. She stepped into Kitty's shoes when a steel girder from a safety curtain struck the unfortunate woman on the head. On her death bed, Kitty asked her to look after Tom and Gwen married him a year later.

Who would have thought the grey man of politics could have had such an interesting upbringing?)