She was born in Shirley Street, Longport, Stoke-on-Trent.Did you know? - Gertie Gitana was born in Stoke-on-Trent? thepotteries.org Her father was a pottery works foreman and her mother Lavinia managed a shop.Richard Anthony Baker, Old Time Variety: an illustrated history, Pen & Sword, 2011, , pp.251-254 When she was three, the family moved to Frederic Street in nearby Hanley. She was a member of Tomkinson's "Royal Gipsy Children" at the age of four, performing on local stages; gitana is Spanish (and Italian) for "Gipsy girl". She made her solo professional debut in 1896 at the age of eight on the stage of The Tivoli in Barrow-in-Furness. Two years later at the age of ten she had a significant billing at The Argyle in Birkenhead, and her first London appearance was in 1900. On account of her petite form and supposed Gipsy origins, she was sometimes billed as "The Staffordshire Cinderella".
