Matilda Alice Powles, Lady de Frece (13 May 1864 – 16 September 1952) was an English music hall performer.

During the First World War she was known as "England’s greatest recruiting sergeant" since she sang patriotic songs dressed in khaki fatigues like a soldier and promoted enlistment drives.

Becoming Lady de Frece in 1919, she decided to retire and made a year-long farewell tour from which all profits went to children's hospitals.

"[11] At the time, British music hall entertainment was increasingly popular and Powles' fame grew as she became older.

Edward Villiers, then manager at the Canterbury Music Hall in Lambeth, was concerned by the gender ambiguity of the performance name and suggested a change.

[7] She was billed as Vesta Tilley for the first time in April 1878, when performing at the Royal Music Hall in Holborn, London.

[6] As a male impersonator, she typically performed as a dandy or a fop, a famous character being "Burlington Bertie" although she also played other roles such as policemen and clergymen.

Her father had died in 1888 and two years later she married Walter de Frece, a theatre impresario who owned music halls across Great Britain.

[14] Tilley was known for her painstaking attention to detail in preparing for her roles: she wore her hair tightly plaited and hidden under a wig; she took to wearing men's underwear so her appearance looked believable, since contemporary women's underclothing would have distorted her shape.

[6] She had found her niche, performing as a male impersonator and working-class men adored her mockery of the upper classes.

[6] Tilley sang a favourite song, "The Piccadilly Johnny with the Little Glass Eye" wearing trousers as part of her act.

She often performed in male roles in pantomimes such as Beauty and the Beast and Sinbad the Sailor, and occasionally played female parts, such as the Queen of Hearts at the Theatre Royal, Brighton.

[14] By the time the First World War began, Tilley's career was slowing down and the changing situation provided a chance for it to develop further.

[6] Tilley dressed in khaki fatigues and performed numbers written by her husband such as "Jolly Good Luck to the Girl Who Loves a Soldier", "The Army of Today's All Right", "Six Days' Leave", and "Your King and Country Want You" (also known as "We Don't Want to Lose You but We Think You Ought to Go").

In its review, The Times called it a "wonderful night" and commented that at the end she was "gradually being submerged under the continuous stream of bouquets".