"LORD" GEORGE SANGER.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 13, 16 January 1912, Page 3

"LORD" GEORGE SANGER.

AGED SHOWMAN BRUTALLY MURDERED.

ROMANCE OF A FAMOUS

CIRCUS. '

J (Post Correspondent.) ! LONDON, Dec. 1. Mi- Lord . George Sanger, thf famous showman, was brutally at tacked, and murdered on Tuesday evening at his residence, Park Farm Finchley, where he has live*:! since hif retirement eight years ago. Part Farm is an estate of 200 acres ii North London, and Mr Sanger kepi a small herd of cattle and horses and employed half-a-dozen me>n, ont . of whom, named Cooper, committee the crime. Cooper, a powerful young man oi 25, must have gone suddenly mad. A1 about 6 p.m. he went into the stabk yard and struck another employee named Austin, across the head witl. a- hatchet. " He then ran into tht house where Jackson, a middle-agec man acting as personal attendant on "Lord" George, was reading to his master.- Jackson attempted to stoj Cooper, 'who slashed at him with a razoiy inflicting a severe birt not- a dangerous wound in the throat. Coop- • er then attacked "Lord" George, and , before the old man could defend himself struck him several blows on th« , head, laying open the scalp and; causing him to drop helpless to the floor. Doctors were speedily on the scene ;v. of the tragedy, but despite every attention, Mr Sanger died a few lioiirslater. ....'. I; In tlie meantime Cooper made his -escape. ' The country is open and ..wooded, and all day Wednesday he ; was; hunted by the police. Early on -Thursday morning a decapitated body was discovered on the railway line at Highgate, and it was identified as ' that of Cooper. He had committed i suicide by lying in front of a train. 5 ; ON THE ROAD. - ; Mr SangeVivas born 84 years ago, ; and his name Became a household in- ; stitution in this country. At the age i of five, young George .was on the road I in his father's caravan, amd thus be- ■ gan a. life- which he called "Seventy I. Years a .Showman;" As socfn as liis | hands could shuffle- cards and palm ■ coins-he went in for "hanky panky," j as conjuring was then called, and 'be-. j fore he was .twenty-one he started a. ■!. show of his own. '. It was the Satur-.-day before.Easter, 1848; that he took • up his pifch' on Stepney Green, then j a wide, stretch of grass, overlooked by .[.the Old Maid and Magpie Inn, but ! now built over. » j The romance of the showman's life I dated from tljis fair ; as well as his | start in life. Among the performers ! at another show was. a. ( pretty girl i lion-tamer, Ellen Chapman, -who was j performing as Mnie. Pauline de Vere ' at Wpmbwell's inanagerie.' They had j laiownono another as children. "Now they met a,gain, and—"from that moj ment I knew that Nellie Avas the only igirl in the world for\me." . In due course.the rorfianc© came.to its happy ending, and the "Lady of |Lioiis" became "Lady" Geortrp Sanger. ' . In December, 1850.. Sanger fitted the place up as a theatre, and for j Christmas put on a pantomime, "The Ice Wretch or Frozen Hard." He played Patchy, alias Harlequin, and Mrs Sanger was Columbine. It was at the Great Charter Fair at King's Lynn, in February, 1854,^ that Sanger opened his first circus. He had bought a -Welsh pony at Ctoydon October Fair, taught it to do the for- | tune, telling and card picking, which | he had already carried out with aj "learned pig," taught riding andj other ring, business to two jiiece®, a" nephew, and four other youiiigsters— arid so Sanger's .Circus, was founded, i He was not yet "Lord" George, for the legend that liis father had him christened this is a legend and nothing more. He took the title com- j paratively late in life. It was when the fame of "Buffalo Bill had come across ithe Atlantic, before the arrival ! in person of that famous cowboy- - showman: . j In June. 1898, .Mr Sanger took his . f circus to Balmoral, and Queen Vief toria talked to him for quite a long time. "So you are^Lord George Sanger," she said; "you look very | young." "I' put on my first sitage dress on the day your Majesty ascended the Throng," replied Mr Sanger. i In. the following year, Sanger's Cirs cus performed at Windsor Castle, i j After a conversation with the show- ' t man her Majesty said to Sir Arthur ! Bigge, "Be stire you remunerate Mr ! Sanger." But when Sir Arthur produced a. cheque-book Mr Sanger de- . murred, and no cheque was written. A few days later he received a silver cigar box inscribed: "Mr George San- j ger, from V.R., Windsor Castle, 17th I July, 1899." From King Edward Mr Sanger received a diamond ring, and he had a host of other mementoes from doaiors, great and humble. He himself was a generous, kind-hearted man, and in j 1903, he presented a memorial statue; of Queen Victoria to his native town I of Newbury. j