The subject of this caricature the singer Sims Reeves (1818-1900) was born in Woolwich, London, and christened John, the ‘Sims’ being a later addition. After early stage appearances as a tenor at the Grecian Saloon, and for Macready’s company at Drury Lane Theatre in 1842 and 1843 he studied in Milan. On his return to Britain he made a name for himself as an outstanding operatic tenor, performing in Edinburgh in 1847 with the great soprano Jenny Lind and later that year joining Louis Jullien’s opera company at Drury Lane. He went on to become one of the highest-paid operatic and concert performers of his day, praised for his superb voice with its authentic Italian tone. He performed privately for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and at lucrative oratorios and concerts where he became renowned for his exquisite performances of popular ballads, especially Charles Dibdin’s Tom Bowling and Henry Carey’s Sally In Our Alley.

Tom Bowling was one of the many hundreds of patriotic sea-shanties composed by British musician, songwriter, dramatist, novelist and actor Charles Dibdin (1745-1814). It is perhaps his most famous sing today because of its inclusion in Fantasia on British Sea Songs, the piece of music arranged by Sir Henry Wood in 1905 to mark the centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar and an indispensable item of the BBC's Last Night of the Proms concert for many years. Tom Bowling is about the death of the real and very congenial sailor Edward Bowling who joined the Royal Navy in 1779 and whom Dibdin is said to have met while on leave ashore in Portsmouth. Sally in our Alley, a ballad by the English poet, song-writer and dramatist Henry Carey (ca.1687-1743), first appeared in 1726 in a collection of Carey's poems, and is the love-song of an apprentice bound for seven years who adoreds Sally, 'the darling of my heart' who lives in the alley.