page_title: Joe Elvin
section_title: Grand Order of Water Rats
hierarchical_section_title: Joe Elvin / Grand Order of Water Rats
caption_attribution_description: English: Tobacco card titled: Joe Elvin, Comedian, As The Cycling Bookie 1901
context_page_description: Joe Elvin was a Cockney comedian and music hall entertainer and a Founder of the Grand Order of Water Rats, a show business charity. With other leading performers he took part in the Music Hall War of 1907, which supported less well paid music hall artistes in their strike for better pay and conditions.
context_section_description: In 1889 Elvin was a founder with Jack Lotto of the Grand Order of Water Rats, a show business charity which began life when a betting syndicate that had grown up around a trotting pony owned by Elvin agreed to donate any winnings to charity, gaining its name when someone referred to the pony during a rainy trip to the Derby as looking more like a water rat. Elvin served as 'King Rat' in 1894.
  His interests included his extensive charitable and benevolent work and a lifelong interest in horse-racing, as owner, spectator, and keen gambler. He retired in the early 1920s and a benefit concert was held for him at the London Palladium in March 1923.
  He appeared in the 1900 silent film The Rats.
  Elvin is buried in Bandon Hill Cemetery in Wallington in Surrey beside his friends and fellow music hall artistes Eugene Stratton and Jack Lotto.
caption: Joe Elvin on a tobacco card of 1901
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