Bobby Leach (born

Lancaster, England Lancaster (, ) is a city and the county town of Lancashire, England, standing on the River Lune. Its population of 52,234 compares with one of 138,375 in the wider City of Lancaster local government district. The House of Lancaster was a bran ...

; 1858 – April 26, 1926) was the second person to go over

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Fall ...

in a barrel, accomplishing the feat on July 25, 1911 —while

Annie Taylor Annie Taylor may refer to: * Annie Edson Taylor (1838–1921), first American to ride Niagara Falls in a barrel * Annie Taylor Hyde (1849–1909), American Mormon leader and Utah pioneer *Annie Royle Taylor Hannah Royle Taylor (7 October 1855 ...

did it on October 24, 1901. He spent six months in the hospital recovering from injuries he sustained during the fall, which included two broken knee caps and a fractured jaw. Leach had been a performer with the

Barnum and Bailey Circus The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (also known as the Ringling Bros. Circus, Ringling Bros., the Barnum & Bailey Circus, Barnum & Bailey, or simply Ringling) is an American traveling circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Ear ...

and was no stranger to stunting. Prior to his trip over the falls he owned a restaurant on Bridge Street and would boast to customers that anything Annie could do, he could do better. Leach returned to Niagara Falls, New York, in 1920 and operated a pool hall. While in his sixties he attempted to swim the whirlpool rapids but failed after several attempts. During these aborted attempts, Bobby Leach was rescued by William "Red" Hill Sr., a riverman, who knew the Falls well and became well known in the area for later rescues. In 1926, while on a publicity tour in New Zealand, Leach injured his leg when he slipped on an orange peel. The leg became infected, and eventually gangrene necessitated the amputation of the leg. Leach died of complications two months later.

In popular culture

* In the Season 2 of

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...

's adaptation of ''

Horrible Histories ''Horrible Histories'' is an educational entertainment franchise encompassing many media including books, magazines, audio books, stage shows, TV shows, and more. In 2013, Lisa Edwards, UK publishing and commercial director of Scholastic Corpor ...

'', Bobby Leach is played by

Jim Howick James "Jim" Howick (born 14 May 1979) is an English actor and writer, known for his appearances in television series such as ''Peep Show'', ''Horrible Histories'', '' Stag'', ''Ghosts'' and '' Here We Go''. Early life Howick was born in Chiche ...

and is described by the Reaper (played by

Simon Farnaby Simon Farnaby (born 2 April 1973) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He is a member of the British Horrible Histories troupe in which he starred in the television series ''Horrible Histories'', ''Yonderland'' and ''Ghosts''. He has writte ...

) as "another stupid Victorian swimmer", referring to Bobby's fellow countryman and colleague,

Matthew Webb Captain Matthew Webb (19 January 1848 – 24 July 1883) was an English swimmer and stuntman. He is the first recorded person to swim the English Channel for sport without the use of artificial aids. In 1875, Webb swam from Dover to Calais in l ...

(also played by

in the Season 1) and Matthew's death in the

* In Primus' song from the Brown Album, 'Over the Falls', the plot describes a man who is strapping himself into a metal capsule and preparing for his descent over the falls in an attempt at fame. The song's music video includes an exact recreation of the metal capsule that Robert Leach had made.

Notes

External links

Info NiagaraImages from the Niagara Falls Public Library (Ont.)
*https://web.archive.org/web/20080723192615/http://reservationsystems.com/niagara_daredevils/bobby_leach.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Leach, Bobby 1858 births 1926 deaths People who went over Niagara Falls Burials at Hillsborough Cemetery, Auckland Deaths from gangrene Infectious disease deaths in New Zealand English people