Plaque commemorating the life of cabaret star Lesley 'Hutch' Hutchinson

This plaque, hung at Quaglino’s in London, commemorates the life of cabaret star Lesley Hutchinson who performed there.
Hutchinson was born on the Caribbean island of Grenada. He arrived in London in 1927 via Paris and NewYork as the cast member of a musical. But his aftershow cabaret performances in London’s exclusive café venues lifted him from the ranks.
Better known simply as ‘Hutch’, he soon became one of the most celebrated and highly paid cabaret stars of the age. Good looking, charismatic and bi-sexual, part of Hutch’s appeal was the hint of forbidden sexual mystery. He had connections – and romantic liaisons – with the stars of Broadway and Hollywood. But it was among the ‘bright young things’, the thrillseeking British aristocracy, where he was most in demand.
Yet his position in Britain was fraught with contradictions – he could perform for crowds of adoring fans on stage, but be forced to enter the theatre by the backdoor. He wasn't even allowed to book a room in some of the hotels where he performed.
Eventually, Hutch’s highwire act – caught between being an insider and an outsider–would catch up with him. Since the 1930s Hutch had been conducting a passionate and indiscreet affair with Edwina Mountbatten, a wealthy society heiress, closely connected to the royal family through her aristocratic husband Louis. When Edwina’s affair with ‘a coloured man’ was exposed in a tabloid, even though the wrong man was identified as her lover, the ranks of high society turned their backs on Hutch.
Dropped by the Palace, he was banned from Royal Command Performances, his name airbrushed from many newspapers and BBC reports. Hutch finally made a comeback in Quaglino’s in the 1950's – at last brought back into the fold of the upper classes. But by this time musical fashions had moved on and Hutch faced along spiral downward. He died aged 69 with a few thousand pounds to his name. His funeral was paid for by Lord Louis Mountbatten - only forty two people attended.
This plaque was created by BBC History and is one of twenty placed around the world for the series Black and British: A Forgotten History (2016).