DAVID RAVEN, born on this date (d:  3/12/2025), better known by the stage name Maisie Trollette, was a British drag queen who was active for more than 50 years. One of the oldest working drag queens in the world, she was a regular feature of Brighton Pride from 1973.

Raven was born in St Ives, Cornwall  and he was raised by his adoptive family in Suffolk. He trained as a grocer and then as a publican (a bar owner) and waiter and at Gorleston Super Holiday Camp in Great Yarmouth, where he bumped into show-business personalities like Lonnie Donegan and Matt Monro. He came out when he was 26 and moved to London in 1960. He later met James Court, with whom he started experimenting with drag. As a duo, they won a talent competition at The Black Cap in Camden Town.

In the 1960s, Raven met his life partner, banker Don Coull, and it was Coull who suggested that he glam up a bit. Raven initially rejected the suggestion, and Coull then said that he and Court looked like a pair of trolls. David thus fashioned the surname Trollette by combining troll with the diminutive suffix -ette. From then on, his act with Court became known as “Maisie and Jimmy Trollette”. 

The Trollettes became regulars on the London drag scene in the 1960s. They sang live rather than miming to backing tracks, as was customary at the time. They were a slapstick comedy act until Mr. Raven branched out as a solo act, performing at charity shows amd venue across Britain. The Trollettes frequently performed at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in Vauxhall.

The theatrical side of entertaining had always interested Maisie, and she landed roles in touring productions of both The Boys in the Band and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Maisie and Jimmy performed in pantomime as the ugly sisters at the Theatre Royal in Brighton. While there, she and Coull fell in love with the South Coast city and its liberal, gay-friendly atmosphere. With the help of their pools winnings, they bought a guesthouse on St George’s Terrace in the late 1970s.

While Mr. Raven was an undisputed pillar of British drag, he was serious about separating his alter ego from his day-to-day identity, reprimanding anyone who called him Maisie when he was not in character. He continued to perform well into his 80s, and eventually used a cane onstage.

A singular figure in Britain, he had an American counterpart, Walter Cole aka Darcelle XV, an American drag queen who earned the Guinness World Record as “the world’s oldest drag queen” (Cole died at 92 in 2023). The two of them appeared together in the documentary “Maisie” having a meal together and preparing for a performance in Brighton.