George Alex Stevens

George Alex Stevens (1875–1954) was a songwriter and musical show director. In more than 60 years of songwriting he had more than 2000 songs published under the names "G. Alex Stevens", 'Geo A Stevens' and "George A. Stevens". He was known as a writer of music hall songs.

For many years Stevens was a close friend of Charlie Chaplin's father in Kennington, London, composing songs for him. His first successful song was "The Huntsman", sung by Dan Leno at a Royal Command Performance before King Edward VII in 1901. His hits were sung by Marie Lloyd, Albert Chevalier, R.G. Knowles, Gracie Fields, Florrie Forde, and many others.

One of his best-known songs was "On Mother Kelly's Doorstep" and Kate Carney featured his "Mother I Love You" for more than 40 years. In later years he wrote "Chump Chop and Chips" for Gracie Fields, and Randolph Sutton sang his "When the Harvest Moon is Shining" on early TV, and comedian Reg Dixon revived his "I'm Shy Mary Ellen, I'm Shy".

The lyrics of "On Mother Kelly's Doorstep" tell of Nellie sitting on the doorstep. Nellie was Nellie Moss a young Jewish immigrant from Lithuania. Nellie was a money lender at the time who later gave birth to twins – William (Billy) and Richard Martin. Their father Richard died on a submarine accident in the Irish sea in 1911 before he could marry Nellie. William went on to be the deputy Mayor of Finsbury at the outbreak of the second world war and Richard rose to captain in the Kings African Rifles regiment alongside Idi Amin.