Actress, Comedienne. Born Eliza Hodges Thompson, the daughter of Eliza Cooper and Philip Thompson, a Covent Garden public house landlord. After the death of her father in 1842, her mother remarried to Edward Hodges. Her step-sister from that union became the actress Clara Bracy. At the age of fourteen, she left home, and in 1852 she joined the corps de ballet at Her Majesty's Theatre. Within a year, she had progressed to solo parts, starring in 'Harlequin and the 3 Bears' at the Haymarket. In 1854, she danced at the Globe Theatre in 'Mr Buckstone's Voyage Round the Globe,' followed by 'The Spanish Dancers' at the St. James Theatre for which she won critical acclaim from The Times. In 1855, at age 17, she toured Europe for three years gaining fame and acclaim for her variety burlesque. She returned to England in 1859, with the reputation of being "one of the most eminent of English dancers.” She married John Tilbury, a riding-master, in 1863, and they had one daughter, Zeffie Tilbury. Within fifteen months, she was left a widow when her husband died in a steeplechase accident in 1864. For the next several years she alternated between London and provincial tours of Britain. She married Alexander Henderson the manager of the Theatre Royal, in Birkinhead in 1868, and sailed with him and her all female troupe, the British Blondes, for New York where they introduced British Burlesque to a new audience. During their first season, they were a major success. The proposed six month tour of the US expanded to six years, to great success and great scandal; in 1870, she and her husband were arrested following an altercation with a reporter who questioned the moral standing of troupe's dancers. Reportedly they held the the man at gunpoint and horsewhipped him. The incident helped garner more publicity for the British Blondes. They returned to England in 1874, and two years later, they bought the Folly Theatre which opened as a burlesque variety house, where she starred in the productions. After her husband's death in 1886, she opened at the Royal Strand Theatre in London, under her own management, but her star had begun to set. Her last American performance was in 1894 in 'The Crust of Society;' in London she appeared in 'An Artist's Model' in 1895. Four years later, she was the focus of a London benefit night during which she preformed a rhyming farewell address written for her by W. S. Gilbert. Her final performance was in 1904 in 'A Queen's Romance.' Her biography 'Lydia Thompson: Queen of Burlesque' by Kurt Gänzl was published in 2002.