Biographical information
Full name
Victoria « Mary »
Colson
Born
1903
Age
30
Status
Alive
Origin
Address
Small Heath Birmingham, England.
Also known as
« Virgin »
Mary (derogatory)
Mary (Everybody close
to her calls her Mary)
Victoria Colson
Mrs. Colson
Miss V (when she
sings)
Brown Bunny
(derogatory)
The Nightingale of
Small Heath.
Affiliation
Shelby Family
Peaky Blinders
Occupation
Nurse
Singer
Barmaid at The Garrison Pub.
Relationships
(with the Shelbys sans Thomas) :
Arthur Shelby :
Arthur had a soft
spot for Victoria. He enjoyed her bold nature when she came and stated that the
pub needed a feminine touch and a little bit of beauty. He enjoyed her voice and
the warmth she brought to the pub and appreciated their little banter. He
treated her like a sister, especially since she didn’t mind telling him when he
was out of line or when she lectured him about sleeping around with prostitutes
without at least using protection -he could father children he didn’t want
and that was the angle she argued with.- He quickly grew protective of her and could go
berzerk if someone dared touch, intimidate, or threaten her. When Finn told him that he believed she was
falling for Tommy, he didn’t believe him, considering how hard to read her face
was. He soon realized the way she was behaving when his brother was around and
how animated she became when he was mentioned and decided to make Thomas aware
of the situation by telling him straight to his face that « Mary »
was falling for him and she was too good of a woman to be left pining and he
should deal with her in a way or the other but at least give her closure.
Polly Gray
Polly, as with
most of the newcomers to their inner circle put Victoria through the wringer.
She wanted to see if she was sincere or if she was a conniving little bitch. Much
to her surprise, she found out that Victoria was a genuine woman who sincerely
cared for her family but had a few skeletons in her closet. The two would grow
closer over time, with Polly trying to help Victoria loosen up a bit and stop
looking past her shoulders for a potential threat. She considered her somehow
like her daughter and Victoria considered her like a maternal figure she never
had. Her death left her devastated, even more so than John’s.
Ada Thorne
While Ada wants
nothing to do with the Peaky Blinders or their business, she already heard
about Victoria as well as Victoria heard about Ada. They both share a mutual
respect. Victoria would treat her like a sister she never had, increasingly
trusting her with secrets about her past she had not yet confided to Tommy. Ada
realized that Alcohol was one poison Victoria took regularly and the more
stressed out and scared she was, the more she drank. Polly being the same, the
two women would increase their alcohol intake to the point of alerting Thomas
when Victoria settles with him. Ada does help her sober up by allowing Victoria
to channel her grief through taking care of Karl.
Finn Shelby :
Victoria is a
little older than Finn, so when they met, he treated her as a friend. Finn,
with his carefree mind, managed to crack her eggshell. He usually would banter
with her and would make her the butt of his jokes. He quickly grew attached to
her and would eagerly watch her perform at the club. He’s the first to notice that
despite her claims, she’s not indifferent to Thomas and would discuss the matter
with Arthur, unsure of what to do with the information. Finn would also witness
an intimidation attempt from a rival gang from London, which she owed money, which
would turn into an assault and would rescue her in time. The incident would
shake her for a while and impact her performance but she requested Finn not
to tell his brothers and would spend a couple weeks sleeping with a crowbar
under her pillow in fear of another attack. When the two guys sent by the rival
gang, crash one of her concerts, she broke down on stage and ran away, frightened
that they would return to finish their job. Finn ended up spilling the beans to
his brothers who took it upon them to pay her debt off, but not before they brutalized
the men.
John Shelby
Victoria didn’t
interact much with John, but they shared a mutual respect. He had always been kind at best or at least polite
when she was around. He advised Thomas to leave her out of illegal activities
because she wasn’t cut for the task. It had less to do with being sentimental
and honorable than being careful and protecting the business. However, John
recognized that her ability to draw attention and captivate her audience could
be used to take information from specific targets. She enjoyed John’s company
and thought that he was a very thoughtful and decent human being. She wept when he died and still is devastated by his death to this
day.
Husband :
Carter Colson (1890
– died. 1920) He was a former gangster
from London, a gross manipulative asshole who took advantage of her. He left
her in debt the didn’t pay for the birth and funeral of their child without
telling her and unable to pay, she fled to Small Heath.
Father :
Jonathan Kingston (died
1915)
Mother :
Helen Bridge ( Still
alive but has abandoned her daughter, might come back later in her story to
bring trouble. She is wealthy and well established in the British political
scene.)
Son :
Paul Colson (1918
– 1918 He didn’t survive childbirth and lived for 30 minutes.)
Sisters-in-law :
Katherine Colson
(She never liked Victoria and cut ties after the death of her brother. She rats
her out to mobsters to whom her brother owed money.)
Pets
A cat: Queen
Portrayed by
Gugu Mbatha-Raw
CHARACTER HISTORY :
EARLY LIFE
Victoria is born
to a Jamaican father and an English mother. They met when her mother was on a
trip to Jamaica with her parents, fell in love, and had sex that resulted in
Victoria’s mother, Helen, getting pregnant. She returned to Great Britain and kept
her pregnancy a secret and gave birth in 1903 to a daughter she didn’t even
name and gave to an orphanage. Her father remained in Jamaica until WW1 broke
and he joined the British army. He died in 1915 on the battlefield.
The nuns called
the baby Victoria and raised her in a loveless and abusive environment. They
trained her to become a nurse, so she would be able to help the children and
alleviate the nuns' workload. She grew up into a beautiful woman who excelled in
the medical field and discovered a real talent for singing she worked hard on.
In 1917, she met a
27 years old black man who belonged to a gang well established in London. He had
managed to lie his way out of war by pretending to be disabled -which he wasn’t-
He manipulated the then 14 years old Victoria, into falling for him, using the fact she was
young, naive, and eager to escape her miserable life. They started to « date »
and one year later, she got pregnant with their first child. He married her
with the complicity of the nuns and she became Mrs. Coulson. She gave birth to a baby boy « Paul
Colson » who died only 30 minutes after his birth, traumatizing the young
woman.
She lived a very
poor life with her husband and the two were very often forced to move out of
the places they chose. She tried working as a nurse but wasn’t hired due to discrimination
or sleazeballs who wanted to have sex with her. She was forced to turn
into factory labor but there, befriended
a woman called Stacy Dash. She discovered in 1920, at 17 years old, that her
husband was actually a gangster who owed money to his London-based gang. He had
swindled her into loving him, thinking he was an honest man when he wasn’t. The
news devastated the young woman who sought refuge at Stacy's house and
stayed for a full week. Her husband begged her to come back to him and warned
her that they had to run away because his gang was looking for him but she
refused to come back. After a week, she returned to their home only to find
it burglarized and her husband murdered.
Scared for her
life, she fled and hid at Small heath, where she lived a very difficult life. Afraid
of being discovered and being asked about the money her late husband owed to the mob,
she worked as a barmaid in any slump that wanted to hire her, when she wasn’t
singing on the street. She witnessed the rise of the Shelby family as the
resident gangsters but chose not to take part in any of their activities.
In 1924, she met
with Arthur Shelby, after a dreadful month spent eating almost nothing, she
chose to reach out to the Shelbys for an honest job and was hired as a barmaid.
She kept quiet for a couple years but built a good rapport with Arthur, Ada,
John, and Finn. Grace’s death and the following doom and gloom that settled in
the bar compelled her to ask permission to begin her « singing career »
Which somehow helped soften the blow of Grace’s death.
--- this is where
the story differs from the show. Thomas still has hallucinations of Grace, and
his situation is still difficult.
In 1925/1926 :
A couple months
before John’s death, he informed Arthur about Victoria’s interest in his
brother. Arthur then discussed the situation with both Victoria (who denied it)
and Thomas (who didn’t realize the scope of the revelation). She had fairly found
her place within the family, becoming a close friend and ally to the Shelbys.
Her past, however, caught up to her, and one night, she was confronted by two London
gangsters who -tipped off by her former sister-in-law-. The confrontation quickly
turned ugly as the men tried to frighten her into giving them her money and paying
off the debt, and they tried to rape her to prove their point. Finn witnessed
the whole ordeal because he was going to her place to talk about her
relationship with Tommy and how obvious it was that they both cared for each
other – and his ulterior motive was to use this connexion to his advantage- He
rescued her and tried to convince her to talk about the situation but she
refused to bring her drama to their already dramatic life.
Things quickly
turned sour for her. She started to heavily drink and sleep with a crowbar
behind her pillow. She was staring at the clientele of the pub, to find
her assailants and her behavior didn’t go unnoticed. All hell broke loose when
the men who stalked her, finally attended one of her shows at the pub,
prompting her to break down on stage and cancel the show. A concerned Thomas
tried to make her tell the truth but it took a while before she finally explained
what was going on. Enraged, Thomas asked his brothers to help him deal with
the situation. They found the guys, beat them up, and paid them off, saving
Victoria from them. Still concerned, Thomas asked for the young woman to come
live with him so he would make sure to keep an eye on her and protect her
better. Which she agreed to do.
This year saw the death
of John, which was a shock for the family. Because they feuded with the Changretta,
the Shelbys lost a brother and that sent both Thomas and Victoria into despair.
Of them both, and perhaps because she was used to being left behind and to
death (from the orphanage, her son, and her husband), Victoria found the
strength to comfort Thomas and help him grieve for the death. They had sex for
the first time while mourning for John and from this moment on, they would
become more intimate. At first, Tommy
believed that it meant nothing, she was just another woman he had sex with like
Tatiana Petrovna or Mary Carlton but he was wrong. He cared for Victoria,
enough for him to be alarmed when Ada told him about her alcoholism and the grief
she was trying to deal with. She encouraged her brother to talk to the woman
and have her speak of her late son and her past. Which he did, and which
brought them closer together.
The war with the
Changretta Family reached its end in 1926 with the death of Changretta at the
hand of Arthur. The family seems to still reel from the death of Grace and John
but the genuine and innocent presence of the young woman offers some well-deserved
comfort to both Thomas and Charles. He wants her to permanently settle with him
and become an honest woman (so perhaps he is proposing but it’s not clear here)
but she always rejects his suggestions, unwilling to become a replacement for
his late wife. Thomas is plagued with nightmares of Grace as he feels guilty about
replacing her « so soon » with someone else as he feels he is falling
for Victoria. His family, however, advise him to be very careful with the young
woman and not use her as he did with Tatiana.
Comes 1929 ------
to be updated
PERSONALITY
Victoria’s saving grâce
had always been her wits. She is clever, and stoic most of the time so she could
observe people and gather as much information as she could. She is widely known
for her beautiful singing voice, her skills as a nurse, and her uncanny
beauty. She is a quiet woman who loves
quiet hobbies and she’s also resilient. Despite growing up in a very abusive
orphanage, Victoria still found the strength to keep a positive outlook on life
-at least, she pretends to be She still has some innocence left and despite
her aloof nature, once she trusts people she warms up to them and reveals a very
soft and kinder side. Deep down, she’s a
broken bird who needs a safe place to heal but hasn’t known what genuine love
is and therefore can’t recognize it when she sees it. She’s very loyal and once she gets closer to
the Shelbys, she would remain loyal and follow Thomas Shelby -but not blindly-
CHARACTER ANALYSIS
Living... in post-WWI
Birmingham, England, a widow. She is doing her best to survive a very
difficult time. How had she not been killed yet is a mystery?
Profession... She has
medical training and is a certified nurse who worked at the orphanage she grew
up in. However, when the Orphanage closed off, she tried to find a legitimate
job as a nurse but she couldn’t face it due to either racism or sexual
harassment. She resorted to becoming a barmaid and a singer at a local pub in
Birmingham that happens to be owned by the Peaky Blinders.
Interests... Drinking
and dancing. Victoria doesn’t have many vices but alcohol helped her numb the
pain. She also loves animals and sometimes watches racetracks
Relationship
Status... single.
Since she had to fend for herself, she avoided opening up to people.
Challenge... Staying
alive and out of illegal activities. She doesn’t have much choice since gangsters
were thriving at her time. She had to give in to her sleazy landlord to
keep her roof over her head.
Personality... Victoria is
intelligent, cunning, witty, and stoic (not to Tommy’s extent, but she’s really
hard to read). She is trying to protect herself from pain as her life had been
nothing but a bad cycle. Deep down she’s actually very soft and desperate for
love but looks in the wrong places. She
is not above killing someone if that meant she could protect others (or
herself). She’s been traumatized by the loss of her baby, the abandonment of her
mother, and the abuse at the hands of the nuns who « raised her ». She wears on her back the stigmata of the
whipping she received at their hands. All she wants is a happy life, but she tends
to self-sabotage because she doesn’t believe she’s worth loving.
XXX
ROMANCES :
THOMAS SHELBY
They have a very
complex relationship. They met when he was still married to Grace and at the
very beginning, despite noting her beauty and quiet nature, he didn’t really
pay attention to her. He enjoyed her
honesty and the genuine care she put into her work and noticed he enjoyed her
singing. However, she was at the very best, just one of his employees, and at the
very worst, not important enough for him to care.
Things started to
change with grace’s death. By then, Victoria had become very close to some of
his siblings, especially Arthur and Finn. He noticed her genuine care for his
family and admitted to her that he enjoyed it when she was singing because the
place looked less gloomy and dreadful to stay in. The two started to spend more
time talking to each other and eventually bonded over time. Both are very
reserved and keep their feelings close to their heart due to their respective
traumas and issues. Victoria is very guarded because she fears being abandoned
and abused like she so often was in the past but she can’t really hold back her
tenderness towards her kin « Thomas ».
They’re both hurt,
and both are trying to find something that could make them forget the pain.
Thomas has alcohol, smoking, and gambling while she limits herself to Drinking. They
both like sex as a way to forget their pain but as they grow attached, they
start to make love instead of seeking release. They argued a lot, especially
before they admitted their feelings to one another because Thomas didn’t mind having
sex with other women when he felt like it (or to further his plan) because he
wanted to prove to himself that he wasn’t in love with Victoria. They argued
when other men flirted with the singer because Thomas was afraid she would
leave with one of them. It took some time before he realized that he was
jealous and wanted her for himself. Not just because he was selfish, not just
because he craved her affection but because he wanted to make her happy. Still….Being
in love and caring for one another wasn’t an easy task for both of them.
He wants to
protect her and doesn’t tell her what he considers she doesn’t need to know,
which would increasingly frustrate her. Despite her desire to keep her hands
clean, she also wants to support her man and wants to advise her but it’s a
thin thread that could snap at any moment. She is smart, and she sometimes has the
right ideas but Tommy doesn’t want to lose her because she got her hands dirty
with his business. He’s overprotective of her and since John’s death is
paranoid enough to double her security details. She noticed that he’s
self-destructing and never satisfies himself with what he has. He’s afraid to
hurt her beyond reason and to lose the tiny bit of sanity still left inside
him. he’s afraid that she would believe he compares her to Grace and would
never be up to her memory and it eats at him that perhaps his second love would
ruin his third one.
.
Tommy is the first
man she’s actually loved and with this first love comes to passion. She loves him
fiercely and doesn’t hesitate to knock some senses into his skull or confront
his family if she thinks they went out of line. She also reasons with Thomas
and tries to soften the angles so the family doesn’t break apart. Needless to
say that she doesn’t always succeed but her efforts are noteworthy.
***
Quotes
« You don’t
need to go tonight. You don’t need to die for a nobody like me. »
« Don’t think
for a second that I don’t have it in me to kill a man. I’d kill you in a second
and wipe my blade on your fucking face. »
«I don’t come from
two worlds, Tommy. I am but human and I suffer like the rest of us, so fuck you
and your high horse! »
« My weapon
of choice is Bourbon. If I was looking for something quick, I’d shoot myself. »
"Love?
Your mouth says the words but I see your cold eyes. I see the emptiness inside
and the desperate need to fill the void. You don’t love me, you simply need a
distraction."
« Are you
really laying on my bed, pretending that all I am to you is a cunt to fuck?
Are you really trying to make me believe that there is no affection for me in
that black heart of yours? Piss off !”
"This smile
of yours, Tommy, is going to be the
death of me. It seems that I can’t resist when you smile, eh?"
« I don’t
want to let my heart bleed in front of him. If I do that, then he would have seen
all of me and all of me can’t be loved. I know…God told me. »
« I swear, on
your fucking brother’s grave, that if you keep yapping your mouth I will slap
the shit out of you Thomas! How Dare you speak to me like this ?! »
« I have
never given my heart to someone before… If I give it to you, promise me you won’t
destroy it. It’s all I have left, my most prized possession. Don’t fuck with
me. »
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