Coleman, Ada (1874–1966), was the most famous female bartender in Britain and, arguably, the world during her 1920s heyday: in 1925, Britain’s Daily Express described her as “the last of the famous barmaids.” Her father died in 1899, leaving his spinster daughter in need of an income. Rupert D’Oyly-Carte, a family friend, found her employment in one of his father’s hotels, Claridge’s, where she began by making gentlemen’s boutonnières in the flower shop before she was moved to the hotel’s bar. There, Fisher, the hotel’s wine butler, taught her how to make a Manhattan. In 1903, “Coley,” as she was widely known, moved to the American Bar at the Savoy, where she rose to the position of head bartender before being displaced by Harry Craddock in January 1926 (she went on to run for a time the American Bar at Gatti’s popular restaurant in the Strand). Coley was a bubbly, vibrant woman whose home was full of parties; her best-known cocktail is the aromatic, cheekily named Hanky Panky.
See also Craddock, Harry Lawson; and Hanky Panky.
“Most Famous Barmaid to Retire.” Daily Express, December 17, 1925.
Lounger [pseud.]. “Club talk.” Sporting Times, June 5, 1926, 2.
By: Theodora Sutcliffe