SLADE ARTIST Harold Duke Collison-Morley (1878-1915)
A pencil drawing Sangars Circus on the move -- Sheppey Marshes superb social history
Original artwork from a recently broken archive of material from the estate of this Slade School of art Student killed leading his regiment forward in the battle of Loos .......
He began contributing drawings to the Graphic and Daily Graphic and other papers early in his career. Around 1899 he went to Australia, where he joined the Queensland Imperial Bushmen during the Boer War, and obtained a commission in the Lancashire Fusiliers, receiving the Queen's Medal. In 1909 he went to Hong Kong for a year. He had an interest in the Circus and was an aquaintance of Lord SANGER ( See more at base ) . This is an unusual subject and the pieces from the archive which depict circus life are particularly charming .
He was killed in Flanders at the Battle of Loos in September 1915 at the age of 38 .
A GOOD OPPORTUNITY TO ACQUIRE A SIGNIFICANT WORK OF THIS INTERESTING ARTIST
Lieutenant. Colonel Harold Duke COLLISON-MORLEY
Regiment: The Buffs (East Kent Regiment)/Commanding the 19th London Regiment T.F.
Born November 30th 1877
Killed leading his men after being wounded in the attack on Loos - September 25th 1915
At the Battle of Loos the 1/19th formed part of the second wave attacking the southern side of Loos village itself. Its CO, Lt-Col Collison-Morley, was killed at the head of the battalion soon after leaving the trenches, and the 1/19th encountered stiff opposition in Loos cemetery before pushing on to clear houses and cellars in the village. It ended the day at its final objective, the coal-mine winding gear known as 'Tower Bridge'. 1/19th suffered the heaviest casualties in 47th Division that day (14 officers and 372 other ranks).
Funeral Dud Corner Cemetery Loos
Honors/awards: Mentioned In Despatches
He also served in the Boer War Lieut. Collison-Morley H.D. 2nd Bn. The XX Lancashire Fusiliers
Lord George Sanger
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
George Sanger
Born 23 December 1825
Newbury, Berkshire
Died 28 November 1911 (aged 85)
East Finchley, London
Other names Lord George Sanger
Occupation circus proprietor
"Lord" George Sanger (23 December 1825[nb 1] – 28 November 1911) was an English showman and circus proprietor. Born to a showman father, he grew up working in travelling peep shows. He successfully ran shows and circuses throughout much of the nineteenth century with his brother John. He retired in 1905 and was murdered by an employee in 1911.
Sanger was born 23 December, probably 1825, in Newbury, Berkshire to James Sanger. James Sanger, the son of a Wiltshire farmer, had been pressed into the service of the Royal Navy at a young age, where he learned conjuring tricks, and later, as a navy pensioner, became a showman.[1][3] He and his wife, named Elliot, travelled the country in a caravan, showing human curiosities and a peep show.[4] After they began to have children, the family settled in Trowbridge and then Newbury, where George was born. George Sanger was the sixth of ten children, and the youngest son.[5] 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.[6] His first "troupe" consisted of canaries, redpoles, white mice and later, hares. He taught them to fire miniature cannons and walk tightropes. The show was a success and he exhibited at private parties, although he drew a few accusations of witchcraft from rural villagers.[7]
Sanger started a travelling conjuring show with his older brothers William and John.[8] 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.[9] Here, he renewed an acquaintance with a woman he knew form his childhood called Ellen Chapman. She was a lion tamer, known professionally as Madame Pauline de Vere.[10] They married on 1 December 1850 in Sheffield.[1]
Poster for Aladdin & Forty Thieves at Sanger's Amphitheatre in 1886
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.[11] 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— to run a "sort of winter theatrical show".[12] They employed actors and put on a Christmas pantomime. 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.[13]
In 1851, the brothers took their show to the The Great Exhibition fair in Knightsbridge, an event that, due to heavy rain, was a disappointment to the showmen.[14] 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.[15] Their first purchase for the circus was a Welsh pony, for £7 and their assistants were two nieces, a nephew and four apprentices.[16]
In 1871, the Sanger brothers bought Astley's Amphitheatre for £11,000 and George Sanger ran it for 28 years until the London County Council ordered it to be closed in 1893.[1][17] Sanger ended his professional relationship with his brother John in 1884.
Later life[edit]
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).[1]
George Sanger built his Amphitheatre on the corner of High Street and George Street in Ramsgate 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, 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 to the town of Newbury, to stand in the same position occupied by his father's shop years before.[5][18]
In 1905, Sanger sold off his zoo and circus effects, auctioned by circus auctioneer Tom Norman.[19] He retired to Park Farm in East Finchley, London, and published an autobiography in 1910.[1] On 28 November 1911 George Sanger was murdered with a hatchet at his home by employee Herbert Charles Cooper, for unknown reasons. Cooper then committed suicide.[1] Sanger was buried on 4 December next to his wife's grave in Margate.