| Oh! What a Circus:
'Lord' George Sanger - Son of Newbury Julie Goddard
In the latter end of the nineteenth century, so it
is said, a short, dark man, clad in riding breeches,
a black frock coat and top hat, could be found at
least once a year, on a spot near where the Newbury
police station is now, gazing at a row of tumbledown
cottages and giving a large theatrical sigh. Locals
then knew, if they did not know already, that
Sanger's Circus had come to town and that George had
come to look at the house where he was born.
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'Lord' George Sanger - taken a few years
before his death. |
According to his own account, George Sanger was
born on 23rd December 1827, in Newbury because it was
the circus rest season and his parents had returned
to the town where they had relatives in the fruit and
vegetable trade market. His father, James, was from a
Wiltshire farming family (although family legend
claims that they were descended from a jester at the
court of King John), but had tired of the drudgery of
agricultural work and set out for London. On the way
there he was captured by the press gang and served
for ten years in the Royal Navy, where he was wounded
at the Battle of Trafalgar. He subsequently received
a pension of £l0 a year and a letter from a grateful
government saying that he was entitled to pursue any
lawful trade he wished, without restraint, in any
part of the kingdom.
On returning home he found that the reception from
his family was not particularly welcome, so he made
himself a small, primitive peepshow and attached
himself to a travelling fair. His favourite display
was The Battle of Trafalgar', which of course he
could, he said, describe in vivid detail from
personal experience. At Bristol he attracted the
attention of a young lady's maid, a 'Miss Elliott';
the interest was mutual and they married soon after.
During the summer they travelled from fair to fair in
a homemade caravan, but in the winter they stayed
with relatives at Newbury. As their family grew they
rented a house in Kings Road, opposite the Gas Works,
which was demolished when the first bypass went
through the town.
This was the story as it was told by George in his
old age in his (probably 'ghost written')
autobiography. Certainly there were Sangers living in
the west of Wiltshire at the relevant time, but I
have not been able to trace a James Sanger who fits
the description George gives, nor a marriage around
Bristol of a James Sanger to a 'Miss Elliott'. As far
as his naval service is concerned, while he may have
been press-ganged on his way to London, press-gangs
did not operate at random. They tended to select
experienced seamen who had been to sea before. It is
just as likely that he volunteered as many did, not
so much for the glory, but for the incentive of prize
money. This appealed not just to officers but equally
to able seamen. There is some evidence for the
Trafalgar story. In 1847 a Naval General Service
Medal was granted to survivors who had participated
in the Trafalgar action. Some 1613 clasps were
awarded to the veterans. In the medal roll there were
at least two seamen called James Sanger: one was a
Royal Marine on board HMS Defence and another an able
seaman on board the Victory. Surprisingly the Victory
muster roll does not show any Sanger on board at the
time of the battle. The letter could have been a
discharge certificate and it is possible that the £l0
per year was a pension, roughly equivalent to an able
seaman's pay, for some kind of wound.
As to the story of relatives at Newbury; these are
said to be the Brindley family and several Newburians
claim to be related to the Sangers and Brindleys.
However, George died in 1911 and no one alive can
claim to have known him intimately.
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'Dressing up for the Circus performance' |
George was the sixth of ten children, his brothers
being John (1815-1889) and William (1826-l901) and
one of his sisters was Sarah (1830-1901) who became
Mrs. Crockett. All the children received an education
of sorts in the winter months. Opinions differ as to
how well George could read and write. He could
certainly write his signature, and (it is said) quote
long passages from Shakespeare and other writers from
memory, but after his wife's death he was thrown into
confusion because she did all the accounts and
letters. What George could do was talk. At an early
age he was employed upon his father's stall,
encouraging customers to spend their money. By 1833
the family was travelling around the country going
from fair to fair. In his autobiography he tells of
those rough old days; of fights, murders, rough
justice and trickery. The family left Newbury after a
dispute between the corporation and James Sanger over
taxes he was said to have owed. In a rage James
packed up his family and left for London, never to
return.
George always said, and repeated it to Queen
Victoria no less, that he had his first professional
engagement on the day of her coronation, 24th June
1838, when he acted as 'patterer' for Malabar the
juggler. Malabar having left without paying him,
George decided to set up on his own. He began by
selling confectionery, but then began to train
animals captured in the countryside around Newbury to
perform tricks. He was said to have a knack for
training animals, but his methods would certainly not
pass the scrutiny of the RSPCA and the more tender
consciences we have today.
In 1848 he met and fell in love with Ellen (Nellie)
Chapman, the lady lion tamer from Wombwell's circus.
They could not afford to marry immediately and
George, with his brothers, John and William, toured
the country to raise money. But in 1849 one of the
worst cholera epidemics struck many parts of Britain.
James, in London, became ill and died before his sons
could reach him. Returning to London, George married
Ellen and took the widowed Mrs. Sanger to live with
them.
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Mrs. Ellen Sanger alias Madame Pauline de
Vere, the Lady of the Lions |
In 1851 the Great Exhibition was held at Hyde Park.
Fairmen were allowed to set up outside the exhibition
hall and they hoped to make money from the thousands
of expected visitors. At the beginning of May they
set out their colourful stalls around the Palace -
then it began to rain. It rained heavily on and off
all that summer (when the sun did shine it became
insufferably hot inside the giant glasshouse) and the
gaudy stalls became bogged down in sticky mud, the
flags and bunting became bedraggled and their colours
ran. In the end the stallholders left. Penniless,
George and his family went back to travelling the
roads. In 1853 things were still so bad that when
their baby son died, the show had to go on to pay for
his funeral.
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Circus arriving at St. Giles Fair, Oxford |
According to George's autobiography, the following
year George and his brothers stayed in Norfolk during
the winter months with their families. It was here
that the germ of the idea of having their own circus
took root. Between them they built a ring. George
trained a horse and its riders, John took care of the
finance and bookings and William painted the
advertisements and scene . By this time John was also
married and there were several small Sangers to train
in horse riding tricks. The circus began from small
beginnings, but as their reputation grew, more
artistes, animals and people to look after them were
employed. Advance parties were required to put up
notices, book fields and fodder for the animals, and
the wives busied themselves looking after a growing
band of children, and mending the costumes.
Twenty years later the brothers, George and John (William
had already left to pursue his own interests),
besides running Sanger's Travelling Circus, had
bought the old Astley's Amphitheatre in Westminster
Bridge Road, London, and also the Agricultural Hall
in Islington and were putting on spectacular daily
shows to enormous crowds. But the business had grown
too big for two bosses with differing opinions, and
an amicable split of their assets was made, each
brother bidding for a lot, turn by turn, until
everything had been disposed of. George (now styling
himself 'Lord' George) decided to try his luck on the
continent and John travelled Britain with his own
circus.
George had two daughters: Laurina (1853-1882) who
married Alexander (Sandy) Coleman and Sarah Harriett
who married Arthur Reeve, son of the then Mayor of
Margate. This connection with Margate led George to
purchase land in the town and build 'The Hall by the
Sea' and open an entertainment centre and menagerie
with brother William managing it. A similar venture
was opened at Ramsgate.
John Sanger's circus travelled under the name
"John Sanger and Sons". He married
Elizabeth Atkins and they had several children: John
(1853-1929) who called himself 'Lord'John Sanger,
married Rebeeca Pinder; Layinia, married Peter
Hoffman, a horse breaker and haute ecole exponent;
George, married his cousin Georgina Coleman; James
married Babs Pinder. There was also William about
whom I know nothing further.
George, as well as having a circus travelling on
the continent, still had one on the road in England -
sometimes called'George Sanger and Daughters'. It is
calculated that in a nine months season it visited
over two hundred towns, giving two shows a day, every
day except Sunday. Their road train between sites was
said to be two miles long and had (according to
another proprietor Sir Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake) 'at
least ten wagons to carry the tent and seating, a
lamp wagon, eight or ten living carriages, a foal
wagon, ten wild beast wagons full of lions, tigers,
bears and others, a harness wagon, a portable
blacksmith's forge, property wagons, wardrobe and
dressing wagons, a band carriage and at least six
great tableau cars for the parade'. No wonder that
the arrival of the circus meant that classrooms were
depleted of schoolchildren - or the school was closed
for the day in acknowledgement that there would be
many truants - and townsfolk lined the streets to see
the free show, before rushing to buy tickets for the
performances. In Newbury, George would make sure that
all the inhabitants of the workhouse who wanted free
tickets got them as well as gifts of tobacco and
sweets from his generous pocket.
At the time of Queen Victoria's death in l901 he
had decided to present a statue of his revered
monarch to the town. It would have needed a braver
town council than was in power at the time to have
refused the gift, even if it was to George's taste
and not theirs. The figure of Queen Victoria in her
state robes, on top of a stepped plinth with four
arms, a lion crouching on each arm of the plinth. A
statue of Fame, holding a laurel wreath, was added at
the last moment. This was placed at George's
direction in the Market Place on the spot where his
father's market stall once stood.
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The Sanger grave at Margate Cemetery,
Kent |
George's brother John died at Ipswich in 1889 and
was buried in Margate Cemetery under a magnificent
statue of a horse in mourning and this became the
Sanger family graveyard. George's wife who died in
1899 was buried there, as were their children and
grandchildren. George continued until 1905 but
competition from other popular entertainments forced
the sale of the major part of his show and he retired
to the circus winter quarters at Finchley. He began
to feel his years and was said to have become
uncertain in temper. According to reports in The
Times' he dismissed one of his servants, Herbert
Cooper, for allegedly stealing £50. One evening in
November 1911 while George and his menfolk were at
home, Cooper returned to the house, it is said to
retrieve some of his property. After an exchange of
words, he picked up a razor which had been left handy
for veterinary work on the animals, and attacked
Arthur Jackson, making cuts on his throat. One of the
Sanger grandsons-in-law, Harry Austin, hearing a
commotion, rushed in and Cooper attacked him with the
house wood-axe which was nearby. Being an agile
former circus performer, Austin was able to dodge
most of the blows, but caught some on his arm. 'Lord'
George heard the altercations and is said to have
risen from his chair. The next thing that everyone
agrees upon is that 'Lord' George was found on the
floor with one or more wounds to the head and a large
broken ornament on the floor near him. All were
aghast, including Cooper, who fled into the night.
Austin climbed through a window to go after him,
while others attended to 'Lord' George, who roused
sufficiently to be fussed over, given medical
attention, and put to bed. However, he became worse
and died in the night. Herbert Cooper appears to have
returned to the shelter where he had been living
since dismissed, written two notes of remorse and
lain down on the railway until killed by a passing
train.
There are other versions and accounts of 'Lord'
George's death. The Dictionary of National Biography
says that he was shot; newspaper articles at the time
blamed Cooper and the inquest verdict on 'Lord'
George was that he had been "murdered by Herbert
Cooper" who then committed suicide "while
being of unsound mind". 'Lord' George's
grandson, George Sanger Coleman, writing in his
account of the family, had some sympathy for Cooper,
and thought that 'Lord' George probably hit himself
over the head when springing up, grabbing the large
ornament as a weapon, and then overbalancing.
The funeral was a magnificent affair, with the
roads from Finchley to Holborn Viaduct Station lined
with people sheltering from the heavy rain under
black umbrellas. The coffin was transferred to a
special train for the journey to Margate cemetery,
where he was buried with Ellen and John, while in
Newbury the flag on the municipal building was flown
at half mast and a wreath placed on the steps of his
grand statue in the Market Place in memory of one of
the town's most successful and spectacular sons.
As the author of several articles about the life
of 'Lord' George Sanger I often receive letters
asking how to trace 'their red-haired greatgrand-mother
who is said to have been a bareback rider with the
circus', or 'my grandfather who looked after the
horses in Sanger's Circus and was killed in a fight'.
Unfortunately I have to say that I cannot help and
that they may have a long search ahead of them.
Researchers can join the Circus Friends Association (see
note 2) or consult its founder, Dr. John Turner's
growing number of books on circus families. Having
tried to dampen any hopes of ever finding your circus
ancestors, I must confess I was once successful in
uniting two of the many Sanger descendants with their
cousins.
References:
'Lord' George Sanger, Seventy years a showman
John Lukens and George Sanger Coleman, The Sanger
Story
Julie Goddard, 'Lord' George Sanger; showman
extraordinary (available from West Berkshire Heritage
service, The Museum, the Wharf, Newbury, £2.00)
Julie Goddard, 'Lord' George Sanger & other
circus families, Family Tree Magazine, May 1989
Dr. John Turner, Circus roots, Family Tree
Magazine, October 1990
Note 1 The Times, Nov.29, 30, Dec. 4, 1911
Note 2 Circus Friends Association, 20 Foot Wood
Crescent, Shawelough, Rochdale, OL12 6PB
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