'Lord' George Sanger (23 December 1825 – 28 November 1911) was an English showman and
circus
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...
proprietor. Born to a showman father, he grew up working in travelling
peep show
A peep show or peepshow is a presentation of a live sex show or pornographic film which is viewed through a viewing slot.
Several historical media provided voyeuristic entertainment through hidden erotic imagery. Before the development of the ci ...
s. He successfully ran shows and circuses throughout much of the nineteenth century with his brother
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
. He retired in 1905 and was murdered by a disgruntled employee in 1911.
Early life
Sanger was born on 23 December, probably 1825, in
Newbury, Berkshire
Newbury is a market town in the county of Berkshire, England, and is home to the administrative headquarters of West Berkshire Council. The town centre around its large market square retains a rare medieval Cloth Hall, an adjoining half timbere ...
to James Sanger. James Sanger, the son of a
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
farmer, had been
pressed into the service of the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
at a young age, where he learned conjuring tricks, and later, as a navy pensioner, became a showman.
He and his wife, named Sarah Elliott, travelled the country in a caravan, showing human curiosities and a
peep show
A peep show or peepshow is a presentation of a live sex show or pornographic film which is viewed through a viewing slot.
Several historical media provided voyeuristic entertainment through hidden erotic imagery. Before the development of the ci ...
.
After they began to have children, the family settled in
Trowbridge
Trowbridge ( ) is the county town of Wiltshire, England, on the River Biss in the west of the county. It is near the border with Somerset and lies southeast of Bath, 31 miles (49 km) southwest of Swindon and 20 miles (32 km) southe ...
and then Newbury, where George was born.
George Sanger was the sixth of ten children, and the youngest son.
The children grew up helping with their father's business. As a young man, Sanger made his first start in business, independent of his father, as an
animal tamer.
His first "troupe" consisted of canaries,
redpoles, white mice and later, hares. He taught them to fire miniature cannons and walk
tightrope
Tightrope walking, also called funambulism, is the skill of walking along a thin wire or rope. It has a long tradition in various countries and is commonly associated with the circus. Other skills similar to tightrope walking include slack rope ...
s. The show was a success and he exhibited at private parties, although he drew a few accusations of witchcraft from rural villagers.
Partnership
Sanger started a travelling conjuring show with his older brothers William and
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
.
Sanger had earned the nickname "Gentleman George" from fellow showmen, and "his Lordship" from his father, for the smart way he dressed. In 1848, the three brothers took their show to
Stepney Fair.
Here, he renewed an acquaintance with a woman he knew from his childhood called
Ellen Chapman
Ellen Chapman was an English people, English suffragist and local politician, and the first woman councillor for Worthing Borough Council, Worthing.
Career
Ellen Chapman was the first woman to run for election to Worthing Borough Council, and ...
. She was a lion tamer employed by
George Wombwell
George Wombwell, (24 December 1777 at Dudnorend, near Saffron Walden – 16 November 1850 at Northallerton), was a famous menagerie exhibitor in Regency and early Victorian Britain. He founded Wombwell's Travelling Menagerie.
Life and wor ...
,
known professionally as Madame Pauline de Vere.
They married on 1 December 1850 in
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...
.
![Sanger's amphitheatre - Evanion collection (1886) - BL](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Sanger%27s_amphitheatre_-_Evanion_collection_%281886%29_-_BL.jpg)
John and George Sanger decided to take their show to country fairs, believing that they would make more money than at the fairs in London.
In the winter of 1850–51 they returned to London and, in addition to their conjuring show, they rented
Enon Chapel—a former
charnel house
A charnel house is a vault or building where human skeletal remains are stored. They are often built near churches for depositing bones that are unearthed while digging graves. The term can also be used more generally as a description of a pla ...
— to run a "sort of winter theatrical show".
They employed actors and put on a Christmas
pantomime
Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and (to a lesser extent) in other English-speaking ...
. After being informed that not all of the bodies improperly buried at the site had been removed, and that the authorities intended to close the building, the Sangers moved out.
In 1851, the brothers took their show to
The Great Exhibition
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition which took pl ...
fair in
Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district in central London, south of Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park. It is identified in the London Plan as one of two international retail centres in London, alongside the West End of London, West End.
...
, an event that, due to heavy rain, was a disappointment to the showmen.
The fair was abandoned and the Sangers moved on to the north of England. After another successful season at Stepney Fair (with a 'tame oyster'), the brothers decided to start a circus.
Their first purchase for the circus was a Welsh pony, for £7 and their assistants were two nieces, a nephew and four apprentices.
In 1871, the Sanger brothers bought
Astley's Amphitheatre
Astley's Amphitheatre was a performance venue in London opened by Philip Astley in 1773, considered the first modern circus ring. It was burned and rebuilt several times, and went through many owners and managers. Despite no trace of the theatr ...
for £11,000 and George Sanger ran it for 28 years until the
London County Council
London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...
ordered it to be closed in 1893.
Sanger ended his professional relationship with his brother John in 1884.
Later life
From the 1880s, Sanger became active in defending the rights of showmen and was the president of the Van Dwellers Protection Association (which later became the
Showmen's Guild of Great Britain
The Showmen's Guild of Great Britain exists to protect the interests of Travelling Showmen in Great Britain.
The Showmen's Guild was founded as the United Kingdom Van Dwellers Protection Association in 1889 in Salford. The formation of the guild ...
).
George Sanger built his Amphitheatre on the corner of High Street and George Street in
Ramsgate
Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to t ...
, Kent, in 1883. Initially it was a circus building but was also used for opera and drama from its early days.
The building was converted to a theatre in 1908 by
Frank Matcham
Francis Matcham (22 November 1854 – 17 May 1920)Mackintosh, Iain"Matcham, Frank" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, accessed 7 July 2019 was an English architect who specialised in the design o ...
, a well known and prolific builder of theatres, and was renamed the Royal Palace Theatre. Films were also shown and in 1929 the theatre was equipped to facilitate talking movies. Films, variety and theatre continued until early 1961 when the last pint was pulled in Sangers Bar and the theatre was demolished along with the adjoining Sanger's Hotel.
In 1903, he presented a statue of
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...
to the town of Newbury, to stand in the same position occupied by his father's shop years before.
In 1905, Sanger sold off his zoo and circus effects, auctioned by circus auctioneer
Tom Norman
Tom Norman, born Thomas Noakes, (7 May 1860 – 24 August 1930), was an English businessman, showman and the last exhibitor of Joseph Merrick who was otherwise known as the "Elephant Man". Among his later exhibits were a troupe of midgets, ...
.
He retired to Park Farm in
East Finchley
East Finchley is an area in North London, immediately north of Hampstead Heath. Like neighbouring Muswell Hill it straddles the London Boroughs of Barnet and Haringey, with most of East Finchley falling into the London Borough of Barnet. It ha ...
, north London, and published an
autobiography
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life.
It is a form of biography.
Definition
The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...
in 1910.
Death
On 28 November 1911 George Sanger was murdered with a
hatchet
A hatchet (from the Old French , a diminutive form of ''hache'', ' axe' of Germanic origin) is a single-handed striking tool with a sharp blade on one side used to cut and split wood, and a hammerhead on the other side. Hatchets may also be us ...
at his home by employee Herbert Charles Cooper, for unknown reasons. Cooper then committed suicide on a railway line.
Sanger was buried on 4 December next to his wife's grave in
Margate
Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and Westbrook, Kent, ...
.
Works
*
References
;Notes
;Footnotes
;Sources
*
External links
* (Contains images of Sanger's Circus from around 1900)
*> (Vintage photographs of Sanger's Circus)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanger, George
1825 births
1911 deaths
Axe murder
People from Newbury, Berkshire
English murder victims
People murdered in England
Circus owners
19th-century English people
20th-century English people