Rex Jameson ( Coster; 11 June 1924 – 5 March 1983) was a British comedian and female impersonator known for his creation and stage persona MrsShufflewick. After radio and television success in the 1950s and early 1960s, his career declined sharply because of his alcohol abuse. He returned to a niche celebrity in the 1970s in his drag act at The Black Cap, Camden Town, London. Life and career He was born in 1924, to unknown parents presumably in London, and was found abandoned at the entrance to Trinity Hospital, Greenwich. He was adopted by George and Mabel Coster of Southend-on-Sea, where he grew up, and moved with them to Holloway in London in 1938. He was called up to the Royal Air Force in 1942, and joined Ralph Reader's Gang Show in the Middle East, where he entertained the forces and worked with comedian Tony Hancock. After leaving the armed forces he joined a theatre company in Harrow but was dismissed for drunkenness. To avoid confusion with the entertainer Sam Costa, he changed his name to Rex Jameson – his biographer Jonathan Cecil suggests that he chose the name of a well known brand of whiskey, but in fact, the name 'Jameson' was that of his 'adoptive' mother, Nell Jameson, who cared for him for many years in Southend – and joined the resident revue team at the Windmill Theatre, London, where he performed for eight years and was a personal favourite of owner Vivian Van Damm. He also toured widely, introducing several characters including a vicar and a Cockney charlady, to whom he gave the name Gladys Shufflewick. His act was as an archetypal woman in the corner of a pub, outwardly prim but liable to slip into tales of past sexual adventures; "a gin-soaked old tart", according to the writer Richard Anthony Baker. In a 2013 study of British comedy, John Fisher suggests that Jameson's Mrs Shufflewick kept alive the tragi-comic spirit of the music hall star Nellie Wallace. For Fisher, Mrs Shufflewick was: He made his first appearance on BBC radio, as Mrs Shufflewick, in 1950, and soon became popular, appearing regularly on such programmes as Variety Bandbox and Midday Music-Hall. He continued to perform in clubs, using more risqué material than on the radio, and became a mentor to the young Danny La Rue. In the theatre he appeared in variety and summer shows, including