"LORD" GEORGE SANGER;

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 8, 10 January 1912, Page 11

"LORD" GEORGE SANGER;

AGED SHOWMAN BRUTALLY MURDERED ROMANCE OF A FAMOUS CIRCUS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, Ist December. Mr. Lord George Sanger, the famous showman, was brutally attacked and murdered on Tuesday evening at his residence, Park Farm, Finchley, wherehe has lived siuct his retirement eight years ago. Paxk Farm is an estate- of 200 acres in North London, and Mr. Sanger kept a email herd of cattle and laorsos, arid employed half a dozen men. >ne of whom, named 'Cooper, committed' the crime. Cooper, a powerful young man of 25, must have gone' suddenly mad. At iboufc 6 p.m. he went into the stable yard and struck another employee, uamed Austin, a-crose the head with a iiatchefc. He then ran into the house fthere Jackson, a middle-aged man acting as personal t attendant on "Lord" jeorge, was reading, to his master. -Jackson attempted to 'Bt'op Cooper, who slashed at him with a razor, inflicting a severe but not a dangerous wound in throat. Cooper then attacked "Lord" George, and before tho old man could Jefend himself struck him several blows >v ihe head, laying open the scalp and :ausing him to drop helpless to the loor. ' Doctors were ipeedily on. the scene of the tragedy, but despite every itiention. Mr. Sanger died a*few hours ater. In the meantime Cooper made his essape. The country is open and wooded md all day Wednesday he was hunted >y the police. Early on Thursday mornng a decapitated body was discovered >n the railway line at Highgate, and it vas identified as that of He lad committed suicide by lying in front >f a. train. ON THE ROAD. Mr. Sanger was born 84 years ago, md. his name became a" household in-itilution-in this country. At the age of iyo, young George was on tho road in us father's caravan, .and thus began a ife which he called "Seventy Years a Showman." As soon as his hands could ihuffle cards and pahn coins he went in or "hanky panky," as conjuring was hen called, and before he was twentynie he started a show of his own. . It vas the Saturday before Easter, 1848, hat he took up his pitch on Stepney ireen, then a wide stretch of grass, >v«rlooked by the Old Maid and Magpie [nn, but now built over. The romance of the showman's life lated from this fair, as well as his start n life. Among the performers at an)ther chow was a pretty girl lion-tamer, Ellen Chapman, who was performing as Vlme. "Pauline de Vere at Wombwell's nenagerie. .They had known one an>ther as children. Now they met again, md—"from that moment I knew that Nellie was the only girl in the world for ne/' In due course, the romance came ;o its'happy ending, "and the "Lady of Jions" became "'Lady 1' George Sanger. In December, 1850,'Sangei fitted the)lace up as a theatre, and for Christmas jut on a pantomime,! "The Ice Wretch, )r Frozen Hard." Ho played Patchy, ilias Harlequin, and Mrs. Sanger was Columbine. It was at the-Great Charat Fair at King's Lynn, in February, 1854, that Sanger opened his first circus. Be had bought a Welsh pony at Croylon October Fair, taught it to do ,the fortune telling and card' picking, which le had already carried out with a ''learn3d. pig," taught riding and other ring business to two nieces, a nephew, and four other youngsters—and so Sanger's Dircus was founded. He was not yet "Lord" George, for the legend that his Eather had him christened this is~ a legsnd. and nothing more. He took the title comparatively late in life. It was when, the.fame of "Buffalo Bill-1, had :ome across the Atlantic, before the irrival in. person of that famous cowhoyshowman. In June, 1898, Mr. Sanger took his circus to Balmoral, and Queen Victoria talked to him for quite a long time. "So you are Lord George Sanger," she said; "you look very young.*' "1 put on my first stage dress on the day your Majesty ascended the Throne," replied Mr. Sanger. In tho following year, Sanger's Circus performed at Windsor Castle. v After a conversation with the showman Her Majesty eaid to Sir Arthur Bigge. "Be sure you remunerate Mr. Sanger f But when Sir Arthur produced a chequebook Mr. Sanger demurred, .and no cheque was written. A few days later he received a silver cigar box, inscribed : *Mr. George Sanger, from V.R.. Windsor Castle, 17th July, 1899." From King Edward Mr 2 Sanger received a diamond ring, and Jie had a host of other mementoes from donors, great and humble. He himself wa's a generous, kind-hearted man, and in 1903, he presented a memorial statue of Queen Victoria to his native town of Newbury.