The Famous Rosaires

Syvia Kent's article, "Our famous residents, the Rosaires" reproduced by kind permission of Newsquest. http://sylviakent.blogspot.com/search/label/JOAN%20ROSAIRE

Martial Edge Interviews/Articles on Jamie Clubb

These links are to the first two parts of an article written by Lesley Jackson for Martial Edge based on the most candid interviews I have ever given regarding my circus upbringing and experiences in the martial arts.

"Jamie Clubb: The Early Years"
http://www.martialedge.net/articles/interviews-question-and-answers/jamie-clubb-the-ealy-years/

"Jamie Clubb: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"
http://www.martialedge.net/articles/interviews-question-and-answers/jamie-clubb,-the-good,-the-bad-and-the-ugly/

Report on the official Salt and Sauce book signing

7th June was a very special day for me. My father and I launched a book that has taken us at least six, probably seven, years to complete off and on. It was also my first ever published book. Since I was about 5 years old I have wanted to write a book of some description. I can't say that this was the book I had envisaged, but nonetheless it is a book I am very proud of. With the help of my father's expertise in the world of animal training and our various contacts inside and outside of the circus world we were able to produce the type of circus book we both would enjoy reading. Launching the book at the Circus Friends Association's Annual General Meeting did fill me with more than a small amount of anxiety. True these dedicated supporters of circus knew and have followed my father and my family's career well, but this book was not about him or the Chipperfields. This was a book about elephants who Dad never knew and didn't ever appear on my family's circus. We had tackled a topic that had become wound up in myth, speculation and folklore during an age that now seems like centuries ago. Furthermore, unlike many books that sell to circus enthusiasts this was not a book dominated by posters, postcards and photographs - although it does include quite a number - rather it is mainly dominated by my prose. Nevertheless, through the help of other dedicated and helpful historians to not mention wonderful characters like Ivor Rosaire, who began their career with Salt and Sauce, we were able to assemble the entire story for the very first time, disentangling the legend from the reality, and I have grown as a writer through the experience.

It would appear that our efforts were not in vain. Ned Williams, a helpful contributor, very kindly stood up to give a speech of thanks for the book. He and others pointed out the huge impact Salt and Sauce made on the lives of residents, still alive today, of Wolverhampton when they roamed their streets having lodged at John Swallow's winter quarters near the old railway bridge. Ned also made the poetic observation that the story of "The Legend of Salt and Sauce" had begun with a father and son, George Lockhart the elephant trainer and his son, the ringmaster and storyteller, and now it had been retold by another father and son team: my dad the animal trainer and me, the new storyteller.

The event was well received and included me reading two exerpts from the book and Dad giving a Power Point display, including photos that did not make it into the book. My thanks to my publisher, David Jamieson of Aardvark Publishers and the CFA for hosting us on this very special day.

Pictures from the CFA book launch of "The Legend of Salt and Sauce"

A Few Reviews of Salt and Sauce

It is early days yet, but I am happy to list some feedback we have received from the first readers of "The Legend of Salt and Sauce".

"Book looks good & makes a facinating read so much first hand as opposed to spinning the usual tales Gives an insight into the business we love & can't get enough of" - Sandy Davidson, circus historian

"I really like the Jamie Clubb book ‘Salt and Sauce'. It is a good job that you are brave enough to publish all these records of Circus Legends. I really admire all the work that you put into the King Pole and all you publications" - Gerry Cottle, Circus Proprietor and author of "Confessions of a Showman: My Life in the Circus"

"Congratulations on 'Salt and Sauce. It is an absolute 'tour-de-force'. I thought it would be good, but it has surpassed all expectations. In telling the story of Salt and Sauce you have also given us a huge chunk of British circus history during the first half of the 20th century" - Mark Twitchett, circus historian

Book Launch at Blackpool Winter Gardens June 7th

The official launch for "The Legend of Salt of Sauce", my first book, will be at the Circus Friends Association's AGM "Pick 'n Mix" event-filled weekend, which includes special shows and tours of Blackpool. I am scheduled to read extracts from the book and my father, my chief researcher and contributor, will be giving a Power Point display talk with historical photographs of the famous elephants, Salt and Sauce. We also be conducting a Q & A session and selling signed copies of the book. Our talk is scheduled for 12:30-13:30 at the famous Blackpool Winter Gardens. For more details please contact Alan or Andrew Coates on 01617867206 (office hours only please) or email cfaweb@hotmail.com

Sam Lockhart's Elephant Walk - Video

On 24th May I attended the unveiling of "Elephant Circle" in Leamington Spa and set up a stand to sign the first copies of "The Legend of Salt and Sauce". The event was organized to not only unveiled this newly repaired and re-located sculpture by Nicholas Dimbleby, but also to celebrate Leamington's historical links to elephants. The root of this association starts with Sam Lockhart the circus elephant trainer. Sam features in "The Legend of Salt and Sauce" as he was the brother of fellow elephant trainer George Lockhart who was tragically killed by Sauce in 1904. I also dedicated an appendix in my book to Sam's life. Despite George's elephants having a more celebrated history in the UK, Sam was the more successful of the two brothers, and during the early part of the twentieth century he famously walked his elephants around Leamington Spa. While I attended the unveiling I couldn't resist the opportunity of filming the famous "Elephant Walk", the slipway where Sam walked his elephants down to bathe in the river Leam. Here is the footage we took: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1zKlz4j7sc

No Absolutes!

When I first made the decision that my story, "The Legend of Salt and Sauce", was going to be a book I thought it would be finished by 2002. Sure enough, by this time we had enough information to produce the life story of these two famous elephants. We knew where they started off, the names of all their owners, how one of them died and, so we thought, how the other died. We also had some good photos. However, as I sent off my proposals to various publishers we started to uncover yet more information. The story changed - not only the content, but my writing style too. As time went on I started hearing words of advice like "you must have a cut off point" - mind you, this was coming from someone who had surpassed Dr. Johnson's ten years in writing his book and five years on he still hasn't had it published! I began to realize that writing an historical book despite having its strict parameters was a completely organic process and one where it was not easy to estimate when its "life" would end.

As time went on I met some terrific writing coaches who helped me develop my writing style. As in the writing of any book, a huge amount of time was put into refining my writing style and then into editing. Please read my friend Geoff Thompson's philosophical article on this particular area, "There is No Such Thing as a Locked Script" http://www.geoffthompson.com/detailArticles.asp?id=86 My book changed from its initial conception, as a type of "Pulp Non-Fiction" (this style is retained in the book's prologue), to being a first person narrative of my father and my investigation into the story of Salt and Sauce (this is retained in the book's footnotes, introduction and afterward), and then finally into the book that it is today - a straightforward fact-based biography. The people who enabled me to take this route were Jonathan Burt, a social historian and author, Laura Longrigg, a literary agent who noticed that I had become infected by the Victorian writing style of the material I had been researching, and Ian Lewis, a retired teacher who did a tremendous amount of kind work for me.

Now, this is just the writing side of things. The trouble with history is that the content is also very temperamental. New evidence crops up all the time. And it was this side of things that became a constant source of jubilation and frustration. By October 2007 I was happy that I had researched all that needed to be researched. I had covered every important area of the elephants' lives that needed to be covered and I had all my sources noted and verified as far as practicable. The story was completely finished. I was happy with how it read. Now my father and I were completing the final tasks. We were listing all the photographs, putting a timeline together for the elephants lives and writing the introduction and afterward. We had a deadline and we were assembling everything to be sent off on time. The book was scheduled to be published by March with the first proofs through by January. Then, the emails came in. Emails from family connected to people who had owned the elephants. These people had more information that filled in gaps, presented new interesting and related anecdotes, and even new photographs. They had to go into the book.I worked hard to include the new material and photographs and still felt that I would make the deadline. As it turned out my publisher moved the deadline back, so I need not had worried at that time. After doing all this I began work on this blog with the very kind help and coaching of historian/author, Heather Vallance of http://www.penandspindle.blogspot.com/ I also started promoting elsewhere to garner local support. The next thing I knew Robin Stott a local historian was in contact with me regarding Sam Lockhart, the elephant training brother of George Lockhart, one time owner of Salt and Sauce. He gave me more information for my appendix on Sam, which I hurriedly included and begged my publisher to include. It made it to him on the eleventh hour. I sent Robin my completed appendix, but there was yet more information he had and a few errors in the appendix. This time my publisher could not allow it and this will be reserved for the second edition of the book.In my introduction to "The Legend of Salt and Sauce" I wrote that my book was not intended to be the "final word" on the lives of Salt and Sauce. Now I realize the weight of that statement. Over the past two years I have become more sceptical in my nature, which has been quite a liberating process. I have come to understand something that I have pondered for most of my life: there are rarely any absolutes in anything. It is a bitter pill for many people to swallow, but when you are in the field of history or science it is essential that you understand that research goes on and that even so-called facts are temporary conclusions. We need to embrace the idea that our work will attract constructive critics who will add to our research and present new information.

I carry this same concept over to my martial arts/self-defence classes. By not listing any techniques in my grading syllabus we have created an atmosphere of constant questioning, researching, testing and individualistic development. Nature seems to tell us that everything changes and develops or it dies. The same goes with history and science, however, this changing should only happen through objective research and the presence empirical evidence. Therefore it is fine to say "that's just a theory", but the theory with the most evidence temporally prevails.

The human desire for knowledge, however, is all too often checked by the human desire for assurance. This is why it is very easy for scientists, historians, religious people, politicians, philosophers and academics of all descriptions to rest on their laurels or become immovable in the face contradictory evidence. The same passion that drives assurance appears to be similar to the passion that drives belief in the improbable. Conspiracy theorists, alternative historians, pseudoscientists and their ilk are all driven by the need of wanting something to be true. We can all empathise with this feeling, so we should perhaps be a little wary of being too scornful of such "believers". I doubt there are many people who hear about the latest reports from Mars and don't get excited about the idea of there perhaps being "signs of life" - anything, please, a fossil of an amoeba will do.

However, being sceptical and accepting the concept of change is exciting too. In fact, it is through this questioning and progressing procedure that exciting prospects and new levels of awareness are initiated. An old maxim of mine was "love the flower but respect the root" and now I see that perhaps I might become a root. I remember getting quite frustrated with a lot of my original sources - books like George Lockhart Jnr's "Grey Titan" - and say "this bloody thing led me completely down the wrong road altogether". However, looking back it did present me with some fairly sturdy facts that actually gave some structure and helped fill the first third of the book - which doesn't even cover a decade - with vivid first hand accounts that were rarely equalled. There may come a day when an historian, who is interested in the areas of my research, picks up a copy of "The Legend of Salt and Sauce" and says "look how far we've come on from this". Putting my ego to one side that is a day the true historian in me wants to happen.

Update on Elephant Circle and Signing

Today I heard some rather bizarre news regarding the sculpture "Elephant Circle" by Nicholas Dimbleby. Apparently despite the many direct connections Leamington has with Sam Lockhart (featured in my book "The Legend of Salt and Sauce"), Dimbleby's sculpture was not influenced by Sam or his "Three Graces" elephants. The sculpture apparently told the main organizer for the event I will be attending to sign copies of my new book, "The Legend of Salt and Sauce", and answer questions on Sam Lockhart's elephants, that the sculpture was inspired by the idea of the British Empire, heavily connected to Royal Leamington Spa. Other parts of Leamington Spa clearly wear their association with the elephants with pride and on purpose: The Three Graces Luxury Appartment Development, which was built on the demolished former house of Sam Lockhart and the grave of one of his elephants, Wilhelmina Close, named after one of Sam's Three Graces elephants, the elephant logo that is used to promote Leamington's historical past and, of course, Elephant Walk, the slipway, where Sam Lockhart famously lead his elephants down to bathe in the river near the old suspension bridge.

What is remarkable about the sculpture's coincidental features is not only that it features elephants, but that it feature THREE elephants, which is what Sam Lockhart was famous for, as seen in the title "The Three Graces".

First signing date for "The Legend of Salt and Sauce"

I am happy to announce that "The Legend of Salt and Sauce" will be launched at Blackpool in conjunction with the Circus Friends Association AGM and rally on Saturday 7th June. I will be reading an extract from the book accompanied by my father, who helped me out on a lot of research, and will also be giving a Power Point display of photographs. The exact venue has not yet been confirmed - I was hoping and partly assuming it was going to be at Blackpool Tower Circus (as reported in the above link). Further details will follow in future blogs.

Blackpool is a great location for the launch of the book, as the elephants worked there at the Tower Circus at various times. The Tower was also the place where Lockhart Jnr. continued to cement his reputation as the "Doyen of ringmasters".

Circus and Other "Low" Arts: A Defence

Joseph Carey Merrick "The Elephant Man" (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I recently re-watched one of my favourite films, “The Elephant Man”. Released in 1980, this is perhaps one of director David Lynch’s most conservative pieces. The director’s notoriously surreal style is restricted to short dream sequences instead of dominating the piece as he is often want to do. I like some of Lynch’s work, particularly “Lost Highway”, and I am also an admirer of the two stars of the film, Anthony Hopkins, who plays the compassionate Dr. Treves, and John Hurt, who plays his most famous patient and the film’s eponymous hero, the tragically disfigured and disabled John Merrick (actually a portrayal of the real-life Joseph Carey Merrick). When I saw this film as a child it was the first feature I ever recall moving me to tears. Imagine my horror years later when I heard a rumour that Mr. Merrick was once an employee of my Victorian ancestors. Later on I found that this rumour was suspicious at best, but what I did uncover was a very different story about the life of Joseph Merrick. I also had to face the fact that a loved film “The Elephant Man” reflects much of the Edwardian snobbery that set a firm divide between the “high art” of straight theatre, a representative of dignity in the film, and the "low art" of sideshows, which the film depicts as the representative humiliation and exploitation.

Myths, Faction and Pulp Nonfiction

If you are an avid reader with a loose discrimination over what you read you will understand that there is something excitingly decadent about visiting “The Works” discount book store. Don’t get me wrong I love second hand bookshops too, but they seem to have a different level of dignity that rises above the brand new miscellanea of cut-price paperbacks. Recently I browsed in a “The Works” shop and caught a glimpse of a series of books I hadn’t properly flicked through for years: The “World’s Greatest” series for Chancellor Press. These sensationalist factual books are the embodiment of what the great historian Robert Lacey called “Pulp Non-Fiction”.

Each book centres on a sensational subject from paranormal case studies to criminal biographies to the most celebrated stories of physical abnormalities, often bearing the title “The World’s Greatest-“or “The World’s Most-” prefixing the subject matter. Each chapter is a short self-contained account of a particular type of event or a particular person’s biography. There are no endnotes or bibliographies like you would find in most historical books, hell, they don’t even credit the actual book’s author in most of them (although you can find the names through simple internet searches). However, it is the content that says it all. These are the sensational stories that astound us, titillate us, intrigue us and terrify us in the manner of a Victorian penny dreadful, but have one supposed advantage over even the most engaging of literary works: they tell the truth. Or so you would think.

Pulp Non-Fiction is really a tabloid newspaper in book form. It sensationalizes true facts, mixes in rumour and produces light reading material for the mass market. Robert Lacey sees the beginning of the mass market of Pulp Non-Fiction coming from the 1950s publication of books on the mafia. These books mixed documented facts with a prose style that resembled a novel. The books Lacey refers to contained descriptions of what the authors imagined the gangsters had thought or even said, relayed like facts. Such aspects went unchallenged and became “anecdotal evidence” when later True Crime historians cited them for their books and thus certain myths were born. The old maxim “if a myth is repeated often enough it becomes the truth” was never more aptly applied than with Pulp Non-Fiction.

Pulp Non-Fiction, for all its myth-making and sometimes dubious pseudoscientific slant is essentially an account about true events, however, amid anthologies like “The World’s Greatest” series we find that there is the odd account, which is actually a complete fabrication. Take, for example, the story of the notorious Alexander “Sawney” Bean. “The World’s Most Evil Men” gives a single page account of this man monster and his grisly incestuously-bred family of sixteenth century cannibals who terrorized South Ayrshire. The tale has no historical basis whatsoever. In fact, despite it cropping up in many a Pulp Non-Fiction compilation of True Crime, there is virtually no mention of Sawney or his gruesome family before the publication of 18th century periodical “The Newgate Calendar”. The collections of these periodicals read like an early edition of “The World’s Greatest” series and, it could be argued are the Georgian prototype of Pulp Non-Fiction.

As I have discussed, the danger with Pulp Non-Fiction is that a lot of its dubious areas are repeated in future accounts and therefore become accepted as facts. The case of Sawney Bean is a perfect example. On the odd occasion I have even read historians actually referencing the case to show parallels with their subject matter despite the story’s undisputed debunking by Ronald Holmes in his “The Legend of Sawney Bean”. The story lives on and it appears as a self-contained appendix in another type of historical book that takes the style of Pulp Non-Fiction into the realm of complete pseudohistory.

This is the subgenre known as Faction. Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood” has been considered to be an instigator in this type of popular Non-Fiction, although I see it as coming more under the Pulp Non-Fiction heading, as it essentially deals in primary source facts yet written in the style of a novel. Faction differs from Pulp Non-Fiction in that its core is not true despite being surrounded by historical facts and historical figures. There are two types of Faction: intentional and unintentional.

Intentional factional books knowingly mesh well researched historical facts with clever fiction – this form has its roots in plays and ballads of antiquity. The 12th century clergyman, Geoffrey of Monmouth, is cited as a good example of a Faction writer. One that was so good that his writings, a la Pulp Non-Fiction, were taken by the historian Raphael Holinshed to be the literal truth. There is obvious danger in this, but the intentions of the author – who is essentially an historical novelist – should not be called into question.

Unintentional Faction is an historical book that tries to earnestly prove the validity of a mythical story. The author, in this case, actually believes in what he is writing despite the evidence against his claim. It can be quite contentious as to what we call unintentional Faction, as the authors often hold onto their beliefs with a lot of passion, a passion that is then reinforced by their converted readers. However, passion alone is not enough to get the historical majority to accept your conclusions.

The Myth element, when isolated, is what surrounds a lot of Pulp Non-Fiction, adding to it and distorting the overall picture. The Myth element in Faction, whether intentional or unintentional, runs straight through it and decides the actual plot. As previously mentioned, there are completely mythical characters that have somehow found their way into both Pulp Non-Fiction and Faction. Sawney Bean and Sweeney Todd are good examples of this. Bean cropped up in Pulp Non-Fiction because he is often found in anthologies that contain accounts of real people, but essentially, like Todd, he is more suited for the Faction category. However, because of the lack of actual real events or any form of actual evidence weaved around the various accounts of Bean it would appear that he is far closer to being a pure Myth than actual Faction.

Myths, of course, are believed by many people and that is why they have their own class away from straight fiction unless someone decides to develop the myth into an historical novel (a genre that has a passing resemblance to some Faction). We may talk of the “mythology of super heroes” or fictional adventurers, but I don’t see a tidy historical comparison between a fictional character like Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man and Ancient Greece’s divine hero, Heracles. The reason being that we know who created the former and there are no allusions of his actual existence whereas the latter was a religiously and historically venerated figure.

The urban myth or legend is the modern evolution of what used to be referred to as “Old Wives Tales”. They thrive so long as people want to believe despite the growing army of scientific and historical sceptics producing volumes of well researched and proven material through every conceivable media.

In the world of martial arts, where I spend a lot of time teaching and training, there is a terrible mess of misinformation and misdirection thanks to a combination of propaganda, mysticism, religion, business policy and the “cult of personality” that has built up around the various fighting disciplines. The pseudohistory, such as the myth that all martial arts stemmed from yogic exercises introduced to the Chinese Shaolin temple, is taken as fact and then influences modern development and research. Following the premise “it all comes from Buddhism” or “it all comes from Yoga” it is easy for the modern practitioner to believe that this is at the core of what they are doing rather than the clear objective of developing a “combative craft” (one literal translation of martial art). The trouble with Myths, Faction and Pulp Non-Fiction is that it only takes a relatively intelligent, passionate and influential person to invest in a false idea for it to become a part of volumes of fundamentally erroneous work. In its most extreme cases it can contribute to the creation of dangerous ideologies. The Myth and the ideology will attract followers and very soon we have passionate supporters following and adding to what is essentially a wrong map.

When I embarked on my historical investigation into the lives of two famous circus elephants that became my book, “The Legend of Salt and Sauce”, I was responding to an inaccurate account given in a magazine. Every step of the way my father, an avid circus and zoo historian, and I found variations on the elephants’ story. The whole story had become modern folklore in the way it had been passed by word of mouth around the circus community both during the elephants’ lives and afterwards. Early in my research I went straight to the most well known primary sources on the topic: a book, a radio broadcast and a newspaper article written by George Claude Lockhart, the son of the elephants’ most famous trainer, George William Lockhart. G.C. Lockhart was the first man to wear the “pink” coat and tails that is now so closely associated with his profession. Being a hugely successful public speaking entertainer he also could spin a good yarn, and it was this personality trait that would also inevitably help lead me completely on the wrong track.

G.C. Lockhart’s book and his other works were essentially Pulp Non-Fiction. He embellished the past, removed certain important details, like the fact the elephants had been trained before G.W. Lockhart took ownership of them, and added in new ones, such as the unsupported reports of the elephants’ destructive stampedes around the UK. As our research progressed we found further myths regarding the elephants told by other people and some built on the original myths told by G.C. Lockhart. In the end we endeavoured to objectively research every important apparent “truism” on the Salt and Sauce story. On the plus side the whole experience taught me to be a better historian and a better researcher. It was certainly a contributory factor that pushed me towards the approach of reasoned historical scepticism.

Having said all this, I cannot completely deliver the killing blow to Myths, Faction and Pulp Non-Fiction in terms of research. I would certainly advise that a researcher applies a great deal of discretion when he uses the obvious sensationalist accounts of historical figures and events, but let us not forget that these imaginative and colourful stories are often what draws us into doing research on a subject in the first place. In fact, in an interview with Radio 4, historic author Philappa Gregory, of “The Other Boleyn Girl” fame, remarked how her historical novels are often starting points for future researchers.

On a personal note I would have never read such thoroughly well researched and lengthy books on true crime as Robert Lacey’s “Little Man” or John Dickie’s “Cosa Nostra” if I hadn’t first read about organized crime in a “World’s Greatest” anthology. For that matter I wouldn’t have picked up on that if I wasn’t reading about the adventures of those now forgotten “fowl fiends”, “Budgie Malone and Owl Capone” in a British comic-book when I was ten years old. Such affectionate memories will always ensure that my nose will never be moved to jerk upwards from a discount book store.

If you enjoyed this article please vote for it on Dooyoo

The Museum of Missing History

Please click on the title to the Pen and Spindle's announcement regarding the new online "Museum of Missing History". It is a pretty essential tool for online researchers who are after primary source historical material.

A Touch of Puritanism

Don't worry I haven't gone all 16th century Protestant on everybody. This article was written to address our natural urge to "spring clean" aspects of our life. I have noted that from democratic initiator/all round killjoy of Cromwell and Church of England Puritans to the individualist philosopher/cult-like personality of Ayn Rand and her Objectivists, there have been people and movements keen to strip back life to its essential principles and basics. In this article I look at the pros and cons of such movements and how I believe we can learn from them.

A Woman's Book Of Allegory by Heather Vallance

Heather Vallance is a thorough historian whose interest in the more obscure areas of history has led her to unearth some amazing stories about some incredible people. This new book, written by her, is a more personal contribution, collecting together various pieces she written regarding women: "our purpose, place, and propensity to betray ourselves".

This book is also available as a paperback on http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1434830071/ref=cm_plog_item_link

The Death of George William Lockhart, Elephant Trainer

One hundred and four years to this very day a terrible accident in the circus world decided three different fates. For one individual it brought an end to an exciting, prosperous and famous life. To another it prompted a new career path that would see him become the "Doyen of Ringmasters", the first circus compare to wear the top hat and "pink" huntsman tails that would be associated with his profession up until the present day. And to two elephants in particular it would mark them in infamy for the remaining five more decades of their lives and make become a part of circus folklore as they passed through the hands of some of the most famous elephant trainers and circus impresarios in history.

On the morning of 24th January 1904 the famous elephant trainer George William Lockhart arrived at Hoe Street Station Walthamstow with his four elephants, "The Cruet", "Salt", "Sauce", "Vinegar" and "Mustard". He had previously been engaged at a venue in Norwich and was now booked at the local "Palace of Varities" for a week. The engagement was not to be. After unloading the elephants the group would stampede down the station goods yard and George William Lockhart, the toast of Victorian Music Hall entertainment and internationally famous elephant trainer, would be dead. The details of his death would be obscured through the constant re-telling of the story and the blame that would be placed on one elephant would often be shifted to another: was it Salt or was it Sauce? A single fact would remain unchanged, George William Lockhart was crushed against some rolling stock when the elephant he was trying to control ran down a narrow channel between stationary vehicles.

George's son, George Claude Lockhart was assisting his father on the day and witnessed the tragedy unfold. Over the next fifty years he would re-tell the story on radio broadcasts, in newspapers and even in his own book "Grey Titan". The information would change, which would add to the folklore that would forever surround the elephants, Salt and Sauce. Meanwhile George Jnr would pursure a career that would see become the world's most famous ringmaster. On the instructions of the great Bertram Mills he presented their famous circus at Olympia wearing a costume that would become the standard uniform of the traditional ringmaster. Lockhart's lengthy career would see him become a celebrity at Belle Vue in Manchester and at Blackpool Tower before his retirement in 1970. He died in 1979.

As for "The Cruet" and the fates of the elephants, Salt and Sauce, their careers too were only just beginning. My book "The Legend of Salt and Sauce" gives the full facts regarding the elephants' career with the Lockharts, including the revelation of who killed George Lockhart, and their long and exciting life afterwards. The book is due out in March. Please check this blog's side bar for ordering information.

A Year in Review

My round-up of 2007.

Ivor Rosaire: Hero of "The Legend of Salt and Sauce"

The 24th December 2007 marks the second anniversary of the death of Ivor Rosaire, a legendary figure in the circus world and a key character in my book “The Legend of Salt and Sauce”.

In 2002 I finally made the decision to meet Ivor Rosaire. Ivor was the last living person to have been involved in the presenting and training of Salt and Sauce the elephants, the focus of my book “The Legend of Salt and Sauce”. By all accounts he was an extraordinary individual, even by the standards of his profession and the circus family he was born in to. According to the author, Rupert Croft-Cooke, who spent a great deal of time on the Rosaire’s Circus and wrote three books on the family; Ivor was “the best showman of Rosaire’s Circus. Confident, with a little amiable vanity, as though he is aware that women in the audience consider him a handsome fellow, he yet succeeds in getting everyone’s attention for Salt and Saucy, who move with trundling certainty through their series of tricks. They stand on two legs, squat on their vast haunches, and one of them, to the delight and alarm of the audience, carries Ida round the ring in her mouth. Ivor, in breeches and a sun-helmet, directs them coolly and takes his applause as his two lumbering charges leave the ring”.

My father and I went to visit Ivor when he was still living at Billericay at the Rosaire’s old circus winter quarters, now the permanent home of his niece Joan, a hugely respected horse trainer in her own right. Joan set the meeting up for Dad and me. Dad knew “uncle” Ivor, as did most circus people of his generation. Ivor had always been seen as dynamic figure in the circus world. He was known to be very amiable and with a good sense of humour, but also a straight talker and a tremendous fighter. He and his brothers had boxed in the circus ring since the age of eight, often having to fight each other when no other youngsters came forward for a bout – this would have been in the very early 1920s.

After settling down to tea with Joan, a loud and expressive voice heralded the arrival of Uncle Ivor. My first impression of him was of a man who had lived life to full and, now in his nineties, had no intention of letting anything get in his way. He had recently broken his hip, but this did little to worry him. His walk was confident, even if slippers adorned his feet. He was smartly turned out. “Do you like my shirt?” he asked not long after we exchanged greetings. It was in the cowboy style, a fashion very common with circus artistes throughout the Salt and Sauce era. His long grey hair was pulled back into a ponytail: “I am an old age pensioner”, he proclaimed in defiance, “and they wanted to charge me £9”. After a few jokes and the obligatory teasing that goes on amongst any close-knit culture, we got onto the business of the interview, the full results of which you can read in “The Legend of Salt and Sauce”.

Here is a short excerpt:

“Ivor Rosaire was born on 8th July 1911 in Pontefract, where Rosaire’s Circus was showing. Ivor grew up into a proud, powerfully built, chestnut haired man who seemed as much at home walking into an acrobatic act, stripped to the waist, as he did when immaculately attired in safari style breeches, long boots, shirt and pith helmet. e was never photographed in the circus ring nor on stage without a confident showman’s smile stretched across his face. It was such charisma that made him shine out even among his colourful signally impressive brothers and sisters.

He claimed he was never taught anything in his life. The only person he ever credited for influencing him in any way was Jimmy Fossett, who was the son of the original ‘Sir’ Robert Fossett, the founder of Sir Robert Fossett’s Circus. Ivor claimed Fossett had helped get him over his hesitation in throwing a back somersault off a table”.

Ivor was already an accomplished artiste by the time John “Broncho Bill” Swallow joined Rosaire’s circus as a business partner in 1933. Swallow brought along his two elephants as a major incentive to help the small family circus grow, one of the very few things left over from the weekend he auctioned off his circus in 1930. Before Swallow joined Rosaire’s Circus they had been an almost completely family-run enterprise with members of the family working in nearly every single act. This was the way Rosaire’s circus had formed. The “Count” and his “Countess” had grown their circus from a small sideshow act, appearing in music halls and on fairs into a full family affair, bringing all their children up in their enterprise. They had suffered incredible hardships, losing plenty through the First World War, but had persevered and attracted the attention of two very notable authors, Ruth Manning-Sanders and Rupert Croft-Cooke, both who spent a considerable amount of time living on their show.

Ivor took over the handling of Salt and Sauce when one of John Swallow’s grooms left his employ to start a family – in fact, according to Uncle Ivor, the family had already started ahead of time and the groom had to rush back home and do the decent thing! It wasn’t long before Ivor was presenting the act, as Swallow’s health deteriorated and he lost his main presenter the South African sharpshooter, Charles Van Niekirk. Presenting and eventually training elephants would become Ivor’s niche. He always remembered Salt and Sauce as his favourite elephants, even after the day Salt killed one of her grooms in 1937. Ivor also influenced John Swallow to adopt a new routine for Salt and Sauce to perform: the tableau act. This classy performance involving dancing girls (Ivor’s sisters and later Clara Paulo) had been inspired by an act given by Charles Schmidt at the Agricultural Hall Islington.

Not long after Swallow left Rosaire’s Circus, Ivor joined him on Paulo’s Circus in 1939 and continued presenting the elephants before his papers came in and he was sent to fight in the Second World War. Ivor was made a sergeant and a PT instructor. However, he was to see Salt and Sauce again. After being discharged he worked in a barrel act (an acrobatic number) on his parents’ show before being employed by “Long” Tom Fossett to bring his old friends out of retirement. John Swallow had died in 1945 and his elephants had passed to his son who donated them to Dudley Zoo. For a year they had stayed at the zoo, where no-one had been able to handle them and legends amount their infamy had spread. Then Tom Fossett had decided to bring them back out on the road again. He bought them from Dudley Zoo and Ivor Rosaire was brought in take them back through their old routines. It was a successful move and Ivor presented them on Fossett’s Ringland’s Circus before Tom Fossett’s son, Dennis took over.

From the postscript of “The Legend of Salt and Sauce”:

“[Ivor] went back to work with his sister Zena again in 1948 as a barrel jumper in the act “Jumping Ross and Partner”. He also became a part of the aerial act, “The Flying Desmonds” that same year. His skills as an elephant trainer were required again when Chipperfield’s Circus booked him that Christmas at Bingley Hall in Birmingham. He took the group on the continent for the next three years and worked with Chipperfields in England until 1954. During his time there he worked an act of sixteen elephants and also, at one time, a group of five bull elephants. In 1957 he was back working for another branch of the Fossett family presenting five elephants. Their show was known as ‘Sir Robert Fossett’s Circus’. He worked there until 1965.

This act became one of Britain’s most famous elephant acts and Ivor one of Europe’s most celebrated elephant presenters. Knowsley Safari Park called upon his skills and knowledge in elephant care some years later. He eventually retired to Billericay, Essex when his wife, Lucy, became ill. He celebrated his ninetieth birthday in 2001. He won the Circus Friends Association Lifetime Achievement Award that very same year. In 2003 he was interviewed at the Circus Friends Association’s annual general meeting, where he gave a talk in front of a packed house on his experiences with elephants.

He later broke his hip and moved to live in a nursing home close to his daughter, Juliet, in South Harrow. Despite suffering a few health problems, Ivor continued to be a stubbornly independent and a hugely respected man in the circus industry. He eventually died on Christmas Eve 2005”.

I feel very privileged to have met Ivor Rosaire. He was the only person I have seen who corrected my father – “shoulders back!” was his remark to Dad just before we went to leave Billericay. Dad laughed and agreed he needed to work on his posture. A year later I would feel like a bodyguard to “Uncle” Ivor at the Circus Friends Association AGM. We had our only photograph taken together, where I too sported a ponytail – it was purely a coincidence (the hairstyle was a leftover from when I presented my Gothic martial arts act), but it felt like a type of tribute to this heroic figure in the circus world. Looking at the lawn outside the venue where the photograph was taken, on a sunny day, Ivor remarked “a few years ago and I’d have thrown a roundoff/flipflap/back somersault over there”. It was a sweet reminiscence, but I never felt that Ivor neglected the present. At the time of the interview Ivor had already been training his granddaughter tumbling and a year previously he had visited his brother Derrick in America. Ivor Rosaire was an example to us all, a man who exemplified Timothy Leary’s “correspondence theory”: he lived for the present, eyes towards the future, but with a firm grasp on his past.

Interview with Heather Vallance, author of "An Unconventional Soldier"

The following is an interview I conducted with Heather Vallance, an exemplorary historian and co-founder of the Pen and Spindle historical blog http://penandspindle.blogspot.com/ This blog is an excellent source for specialist historical information and research, promoting lesser known aspects of history and obscure yet significant characters of the past. My interview focused on her new e-book, "An Unconvential Solidier", which appears to be the embodiment of the Pen and Spindle's mission.




Jamie Clubb: Where did you first hear about John Young Filmore Blake?



Heather Vallance: I first came across John Blake around 1997 or 1998. I was helping Cathy Barrett with some research on Texas Jack, the Wild West Show proprietor who gave Will Rogers his entertainment break in South Africa in 1902. As you know, Cathy has spent the last 12 or so years trying to piece together the real Texas Jack because he left us with no memory of himself. Every once in a while she calls on me for research back up. This was one of those occasions. I was scanning material from the early 20th century and I happened on John Blake's book, *A West Pointer With The Boers*. I remembered the stories that had been handed down to me about the Boer War, and the Irish and Americans who fought for the Boers. I was intrigued, but at first I accepted what everyone else said, that John Blake was a bit of a loser and a mercenary.





Jamie Clubb: Outside (and inside) America, the South and the Confederates are often presented as the suppressors. In many ways "An Unconventional Solider" turns this on its head, both in the way that Blake's Confederate family are persecuted and in the way that Blake fought for the suppressed. Please could you elaborate on this?



Heather Vallance: The Civil War symbolizes two clear-cut viewpoints. For those who still embrace the Confederate flag, it represents a very deep cut. For the remainder of Americans, the Civil War and the period prior to it represent the struggle to return dignity to an enslaved people. But, wars are complex and messy things, and at the time they happen the reasons for fighting are very personal and often unrelated to the causes we later associate with them. For a body of Southerners the Civil War was not about the right to own slaves, it was about the right to own the land that they, their fathers and grandfathers had been awarded in government treaties when Indian ancestral lands became fair game for settlers and prospectors. This has been forgotten. General Stand Watie led his volunteer Native Americans into battle during the Civil War because he believed that the Union government was once again going to strip Indian land from the Five Civilized Nations.



Even those Native Americans who fought for the Union were fighting for the same reason. The Indian factor in the Civil War was about protecting what little they had left of their share of America. Stand Watie was Cherokee and most of his men were Cherokee, the rest came from other Indian Territory nations. The letters from well-placed Arkansas men pleading with Watie to lead the Cherokee into battle were not about slavery. These letters were about the preservation of Indian Territory lands. What the Native Americans perceived in the run-up to the war was yet another betrayal, another whole scale land theft in motion. Some may have conjoined racial prejudice to their land struggle, but in the story I am telling, this was not the case.



Jamie Clubb: The Clan-na-Gael was a Masonic/terrorist organization that is virtually unheard of today, but at the time they were clearly a feared and influential group, comparable to the "Scowerers" in Arthur Conan Doyle's 1914 Sherlock Holmes novel "The Valley of Fear". Could you provide a little background on them and the role they played in the South African gold mine situation in the late 1800s?



Heather Vallance: The Clan-na-Gael, like all Irish rebel organizations, was created as a response to the British imperial confiscation of Ireland. Members saw themselves as exiles whose only way to get at their enemy was to take the other side, no matter what that 'other side' was. The Irish rebellion motto was *England's disadvantage is Ireland's advantage*. Of course, this is the idealism that drives rebel membership. Beneath the membership lies the politics. The Clan-na-Gael was an incredibly powerful political organization, as you say. It was powerful because its executive was made up of Irish Americans with formidable networks and often high profile positions in government and in the military and it was tied, in many ways, to the early rise of America as an imperial power. For a period of thirty years, from the 1870s through to the turn of the 20th century, the Clan-na-Gael dictated policy internationally.



The intriguing thing is that British Intelligence only recognized the threat the organization posed in the 1880s. Before that, the Clan-na-Gael seems to have been lumped into the same pot as the 'Fenians' who were perceived as a bunch of loose but controllable Irish canons. I am not even sure if the financial and advisory contribution made by the Clan-na-Gael to the first Anglo-Boer War registered as a warning signal. It seems that those in the British government responsible for security issues were somehow blinded by confidence in their own ability to read the Irish. That, of course, was a huge mistake. They weren't technically dealing with the Irish. They were dealing with Americans some of whom were first generation Irish. Southern Africa was mineral rich and all organizations whether they are government or rebel organizations need money to stay afloat. Gold had been discovered in the 1850s on Boer lands known as the Transvaal Republic. The Boer executive did everything short of murdering those who mentioned 'gold' to keep the discovery under wraps.



The British annexed the Transvaal Republic at the end of the 1870s but their surveyors could find no trace of gold. So, try to imagine a chess board with randomly animated pieces and a gaggle of players with hands raised in anticipation, waiting from any sign of movement on the board. That is what conditions were like before the official discovery of gold in the 1880s in the Transvaal Republic. The Clan-na-Gael was one of the players at the table.



Jamie Clubb: You say the material was "hard-to-access". Do you feel that it was suppressed in some way or is this so much "conspiracy theory" for the "buffs"?



Heather Vallance: *Suppressed* is a loaded word. Information about this period in history was written by those who took control of African gold under the banner of an Anglo-American alliance. By the very laws that govern the nature of information, sources that do not support the dominant written history of an epoch carry little or no value. Information that carries little or no value, in turn, is 'weeded' – a perfectly legitimate archival process of keeping for posterity documents that are important and perceived as beneficial to our knowledge of the past. Of course, perspectives change, histories are re-evaluated and re-written, and the flaws in the methods of knowledge preservation are again highlighted. The act of *suppressing* information, if you will, is more often than not unintentional, almost knee-jerk, and dictated by the worldview of epochs, cultures, rulers, ideologies, and even the supposedly neutral archivists who are custodians of the past. Should they all be lined up and shot before dawn? Not if you are of the opinion that your decisions are as fallible as theirs.



When we research a subject or event we need to be rational about how we look at the context in which the information came into being, and then trace how this information was shaped by the contexts of each era of hands through which it has passed. If we fail to do this we start subjecting our ancestors to some very weird accusations. Conspiracy theory, on the other hand, and those who keep crying conspiracy theory are, for me, a little like those who insist that everything is the fault of the Devil. There is either no real thought going on in the heads of both groups, or they are somehow in on the scam. I have a nasty feeling that a cry of 'conspiracy theory' is just another way of beating researchers into submission, discouraging them from asking really hard questions. It's a wonderful catch-all. Don't believe what he or she says because it is conspiracy theory stuff that isn't valid. The only so-called gain from attitudes like this lies in the fact that important research often lands up on the trash heap and, you have to ask yourself, who exactly benefits from this?



Jamie Clubb: *An Unconventional Soldier* is about the war for gold in Africa. Where do Wild West Shows fit into this story?



Heather Vallance: What does Hollywood have to do with oil in the Middle East? Politics rides on the back of what works. What works is what blurs the boundary between reality and fiction, and keeps the masses from questioning the motives, direction and deeds of the governing classes. The British royal family and government benefited from association with the Wild West Show and its performers in the same way they benefit from the iconic cult of Diana. Theodore Roosevelt created the Rough Riders straight out of the pages of the Wild West, and he fought a war powered by the myth of good versus evil. Go as far back as the earliest expressions of an epoch, as far back as the first rune or glyph and you will find that popular culture is both the drug of the masses, and the impetus which drives the political will of a nation or an empire.
The 'Wild West' was the international standard in popular culture from the 1870s into the era of silent movies. In the same way Hollywood defines our vision of the world as we know it, Wild West Shows defined the vision of America and the world as John Blake knew it. If we want to understand the epochs we research we have to understand these in the context of their popular culture. *An Unconventional Soldier* takes place at the time Africa became the new frontier in the 1880s and 1890s. Americans flocked to subSaharan Africa, taking with them all their preconceptions of their world which had been shaped by American popular culture. Wild West Show performers, like movie stars today, metamorphosed into expressions of the politics of the time. John Blake was often referred to as not unlike Buffalo Bill. Stars themselves over-stepped the boundaries between their fictional world and the real world, placing their mark directly on the political truth of the day. No different, to any number of actors and actresses who rise through the political ranks or become outspoken critics of ideologies today. We simply can't ignore their influence on or their presence in history. The same can be said about the Wild West and the shows it spawned.



Jamie Clubb: Why do you say that the term "cowboys" entered our vocabulary as a result of the Civil War?



Heather Vallance: The Civil War destroyed the South. It left a lot of men and women scraping about for a living. Among these were some of the future artistes of Wild West Shows. They used what they knew to create a story that would bring in enough money to pay the bills. Buffalo Bill popularized the 'cowboy' in his Wild West Shows. He created the 'universal protector of good against evil' with his guns by his side, riding into the sunset. This icon in real life was a humble cattle driver who, before the rise to fame of the Wild West Shows, had never been heard of by British queens or Danish princes, and certainly not by Boer farmers.



Jamie Clubb: When we think of Wild West Shows we think of Indians as people who attacked stage coaches while wearing headdresses, people who lived in tepees and remote places. You claim that this is not the whole picture in *An Unconventional Soldier*, why?


Heather Vallance: Native American culture has been hugely misrepresented in popular culture, and in the history of 19th century politics. Native American society throughout history has been as diverse in its political ideologies and attitudes toward things as any other culture. Popular culture was allowed, in a sense, by the political pundits of the day, to pack this diversity into a single image – the feathered barbarian. The single image facilitated the aims of those who wanted to annihilate the Indians as a political force in American society – to assimilate them. *An Unconventional Soldier* contains stories of Native Americans who were indistinguishable from their settler neighbours, not only in dress but in daily life and activity.


Jamie Clubb: Without revealing too much of your material, just how did the American Indians end up fighting for the Boers?



Heather Vallance: *An Unconventional Soldier* is all about gold, yes, but it is also about the struggle to save land from those whose intention it was to claim that land as their own. Evidence suggests that the struggle for land rights was a universally shared ideology at the turn of the 20th century, much in the same way that you get associations of labour unions today. This is a part of history that really has to be excavated more fully. I say 'excavated' because here is a classic example of the destruction of historical sources because those who weeded information thought that Indians were irrelevant to the history of their own culture, whatever that culture was at the time.



Jamie Clubb: What has attracted you to the material that we see mainly promoted on the Pen and Spindle Blog?



Heather Vallance: The vision behind the Pen and the Spindle is to provide a virtual home for stories that have either been weeded out of traditional history or stories that are too humble to be considered important by the keepers of documents. I am also attracted to these stories because they reveal more about the truth of the times in which they play out than the written-to-order histories that perpetuate the same tedious themes and ideologies we are fed from birth. The world is, and was, a far more exciting place than we're led to believe.


Jamie Clubb: When I first corresponded with you, you and Cathy Barrett were on the trail of Texas Jack who was yet another figure who was famous in his time, but yet almost forgotten today. What attracts you to these figures? Cathy still has some unravelling to do on Texas Jack. She hopes to have his story out to pasture within a few more years. And, as you ask, what is it that draws me, and other researchers like Cathy, to characters who have essentially lost their history?



Heather Vallance: The answer is quite straightforward, actually. We are attracted by the challenge of reconstructing lost histories from the shadows that remain behind, shadows that tell us that something once existed in that spot. 1. Another topic I have seen reoccur in your writing is the subject of platonic relationships and how, all too often, modern day historians jump to assumptions regarding the friendship people have with each other. How do you feel this obscures history? I think that the popular culture of our own era is to blame for the contemporary approach to perceiving historical and present day relationships as sexual only.
We're trapped in a sort of fifteen-year-old, giggly girl approach to deciphering the complexity of human nature and interaction, and that disturbs me. Knowledge building is not a plaything. It is the method of survival of identity, of culture, and nationhood. By adopting a Butterfly Express method to our intellectual asset building for the future, we treat learning as a superficial, self-gratifying game that takes us down the road to our own obscurity. I suppose I've never understood people who are consciously and deliberately self-destructive, and part of that self-destruction is to water down the interaction between and among people to its most basic form. We're a bit more complex than that and a bit more interesting, and so I always look for the power of collective and platonic friendship in history and in life. There is just so much more to explore.



Ultimately, from an historical perspective, we have replaced the *Who's Who*study of Great Men with the *Who Slept With Whom* study of social history. Neither furthers our understanding of past epochs or of ourselves as a species trying to survive under increasingly difficult conditions.



Jamie Clubb: *An Unconventional Soldier* will form part of a larger piece of work you hope to finish in two years time. Can you give me more information on this book and will be published in a hardcopy format?



Heather Vallance: *An Unconventional Soldier* is a stand-alone story whose core research will play a role in a more complete story about the politics and popular culture of the late 19th and early 20th century. It was published initially as an eBook because the cost of hard copy and shipping these days discourages many potential readers whose international currency exchange is horrible. eBooks can retail for half the price of a hard copy but contain exactly the same information. I will probably produce a hard copy in early 2008 which will include verbatim copies of public domain sources important to the story. This hard copy will be for the serious researcher, but anyone simply interested in the story will benefit from the eBook, for the exact reason I gave in the beginning, - cost.



Jamie Clubb: Where do you see the Pen and Spindle blog going? It certainly seems to be gathering steam.



Heather Vallance: I would like to see it become a respected resource and a touchstone for people who are truly curious about the past.

Who was Wilhelm Philadelphia?

The expression "celebrities in their day" can be aptly applied to many of the characters I have researched for my upcoming book "The Legend of Salt and Sauce". The two elephants themselves were described in one objective contemporary book as currently the most famous elephants in the UK when barely a decade later, Sauce's name was changed to "Jumbo" to garner public attention on Cody's Circus. The name was to be changed back again to Sauce or "Saucy" by Billy Butlin her final owner when she appeared at his holiday camp in Skegness. However, one character who certainly seems to have been well known in his day, but there is little surviving evidence of is Wilhelm Philadelphia. The man has the recognition of being Salt and Sauce's first ever trainer.

In his book "Grey Titan: The Book of Elephants", George Claude Lockhart, the famous ringmaster, described the troupe of elephants his father purchased as being "wild". Apparently the marks of their rough handling in India were visible on their legs. This wildness is given as a reason for why they were so unruly during the 18 months or so his father, George William Lockhart, trained and presented them. The fact of the matter is that George Snr would have had to have been an incredible trainer to put wild elephants through the routine they are pictured doing with him in the short amount of time. There is also one other factor that counts against him being the elephants' first trainer and that is the credited presence of Wilhelm Philadelphia. George Jnr. names him in his book and in other sources as the man responsible for delivering the group of four elephants. Young George also remarks that Philadelphia had previously been injured by elephants and his body contained steel plates as a result.

Other historical information later revealed photographs of Philadelphia pictured with a lion and then we found another piece of compelling evidence - Philadelphia lining up a group of four baby elephants at Hagenbeck's Zoo on a photograph dated 1900. He was clearly a well respected and experienced elephant handler.

The fate of Wilhelm Philadelphia is not clear. Here is the footnote I wrote for "The Legend of Salt and Sauce" on the man:

"I recently discovered a fairly objectively written piece on the keeping of elephants in captivity on the “Elephant Country Web” website http://www.elephantcountryweb.com/ that lists several examples of people killed by elephants. One of these people, according to the article, was Wilhelm Philadelphia. The article states “Ross, the cow elephant, crushed the trainer Wilhelm Philadelphia to death on the wall of her box at the Sarrasani Circus in 1921”. The date, of course, contradicts the archival information we have on Philadelphia’s appearances on Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus".