Wallace the Lion

Among the more striking items in the Saffron Walden Museum in Essex is a stuffed lion named Wallace. In a former life, Wallace had been a star in George Wombwell’s nineteenth-century traveling menagerie of exotic beasts and birds. Born in Edinburgh in 1812, Wallace was the first African lion to be bred in England and was perhaps named after William Wallace, the Scottish freedom fighter.

While Wallace was never to know freedom, he was a fighter, and his most renowned performance occurred in July 1825 in a factory year in Warwick. Wombwell had arranged for his pet lion Nero, a large but gentle soul, to be baited by six trained fighting dogs for a crowd eager for blood sport. The docile Nero, however, refused to fight the dogs, and Wombwell finally had to admit his lion’s defeat. After removing Nero from the pit, Wombwell immediately offered to match Wallace against six more dogs. The bet was taken and a fight arranged for the next Saturday night. Six dogs named Tinker, Ball, Billy, Sweep, Turpin, Tiger were set on the lion in pairs as had been the case with Nero. This time, however, each dog lasted less than a minute in the cage with Wallace.

Wallace's temperament remained something less than meek throughout his life. Two years later he attacked a man named Jonathan Wilson who (as the Leeds Mercury noted) "imprudently and incautiously" placed his hand upon the bottom of Wallace's cage between the grating. Wallace attacked and seized the man's arm with his fangs. Fortunately the keeper was at hand, "and by his prompt, spirited and efficient exertions" - what ever those might be - succeeded in saving both the man and his arm from Wallace. A week later the Leeds Mercury posted the following:

"Jonathan Wilson, whose arm was severly bitten and torn at our fair, by Wombwell's lion, Wallace ... continued in a favourable state until Saturday, when the arm was suddently attacked by violent inflammation, followed rapidly by mortification [of the arm, not Wilson]. In this state he continued till Wednesday morning, when he died at his own home, having, the day before, requested to be moved thither from the infimary."

It was almost certainly this particular Wallace (the name became a popular one for lions) that inspired Marriott Edgar's poem "The Lion and Albert" which relates the quaintly vicious story of a young boy named Albert who was eaten by a lion at the zoo:

THE LION AND ALBERT
by
Marriott Edgar

There's a famous seaside place called Blackpool,
That's noted for fresh-air and fun,
And Mr and Mrs Ramsbottom
Went there with young Albert, their son.

A grand little lad was their Albert
All dressed in his best; quite a swell
'E'd a stick with an 'orse's 'ead 'andle
The finest that Woolworth's could sell.

They didn't think much to the ocean
The waves, they was fiddlin' and small
There was no wrecks... nobody drownded
'Fact, nothing to laugh at, at all.

So, seeking for further amusement
They paid and went into the zoo
Where they'd lions and tigers and cam-els
And old ale and sandwiches too.

There were one great big lion called Wallace
His nose were all covered with scars
He lay in a som-no-lent posture
With the side of his face to the bars.

Now Albert had heard about lions
How they were ferocious and wild
And to see Wallace lying so peaceful
Well... it didn't seem right to the child.

So straight 'way the brave little feller
Not showing a morsel of fear
Took 'is stick with the'orse's 'ead 'andle
And pushed it in Wallace's ear!

You could see that the lion didn't like it
For giving a kind of a roll
He pulled Albert inside the cage with 'im
And swallowed the little lad... whole!

Then Pa, who had seen the occurrence
And didn't know what to do next
Said, "Mother! Yon lions 'et Albert"
And Mother said "Eeh, I am vexed!"

So Mr and Mrs Ramsbottom
Quite rightly, when all's said and done
Complained to the Animal Keeper
That the lion had eaten their son.

The keeper was quite nice about it
He said, "What a nasty mishap
Are you sure that it's your lad he's eaten?"
Pa said, "Am I sure? There's his cap!"

So the manager had to be sent for
He came and he said, "What's to do?"
Pa said, "Yon lion's 'eaten our Albert
And 'im in his Sunday clothes, too."

Then Mother said, "Right's right, young feller
I think it's a shame and a sin
For a lion to go and eat Albert
And after we've paid to come in!"

The manager wanted no trouble
He took out his purse right away
And said, "How much to settle the matter?"
And Pa said "What do you usually pay?"

But Mother had turned a bit awkward
When she thought where her Albert had gone
She said, "No! someone's got to be summonsed"
So that were decided upon.

Round they went to the Police Station
In front of a Magistrate chap
They told 'im what happened to Albert
And proved it by showing his cap.

The Magistrate gave his o-pinion
That no-one was really to blame
He said that he hoped the Ramsbottoms
Would have further sons to their name.

At that Mother got proper blazing
"And thank you, sir, kindly," said she
"What waste all our lives raising children
To feed ruddy lions? Not me!"

By early July in 1838, Wallace was in sad decline. A journalist for the local Wolverhampton newspaper noted the difference in the lion from his last visit: "Numerous persons who have visited the Menagerie over the past week have had their feelings unusually excited by the worn out appearance of their old favourite lion, Wallace. This once fine and noble creature seems to be gradually sinking from premature old age and is at times so weak as scarcely to be able to support his own weight."

After Wallace’s death in 1838, he was sent to the Saffron Walden Museum by stagecoach. A framework for his body was made of wooden struts and wires, over which his skin was stretched and stuffed with wood shavings. He was mounted with his left front paw theatrically posed on the figure of a dog, in remembrance of his triumph in the fighting pit. The first museum catalogue published in 1845 reads:

Lion Barbarus Grey (The Lion Wallace) Presented by Mr. G. Wombwell. This animal is remarkable as the first lion bred in this country and was during his life of 25 years in collection of Mr. G. Wombwell, surviving his battle with the dogs at Warwick, several years.

_______________________________________________________________

"The other day (Wen. Sept. 1) I posted a picture titled "Cardona killed at Ripon by Wallace." I pondered at the name Wallace being such a popular name for lions, "back in the day." I have often wondered if the familiar names Wallace and Nero from old writings were the same animal's or if the names were just popular names. Jim Stockley sent the above piece of great history, and also the additional information about "other Wallace's" below to noted cage historian Jim Clubb. We will await his reply to the question: So which "Captain Cardona" died under which lion "Wallace" at Ripon and when ?"

_________________________________________________________________

From Jim Stockley:

I don't know how many lions named 'Wallace' there were between all the menageries (I even have a male of that name now!) but I thought there were four "Captain Cardonas" and none of them killed by a lion called Wallace?

1. Alec Day was Capt Cardona (last seen 1911 working a mixed group of leopards, bears and hyenas for Frank Bostock, B&W No2 show)

2. Tom Bridgeman with Bostocks (died 1891 Bronchitis)

3. Fred Hinds (from Edmonds Menagerie, died 1925 aged 69)

4. Thomas Crouch (he pull the original 'Lion King' Alexander William Beaumont out of "the lion Hannibal" cage at Islington in 1895? ....Beaumont died aged 27yrs. Crouch was using the name "Capt.Ricardo" at the time?) Crouch died 1936 at Shoreditch.

Wombwell had the lions "Wallace" and "Nero" at the 'Lion Fight' in Warwick of 1825 (this "Wallace" died 1838 and was stuffed and kept at
Saffron Walden Museum in Essex

Pat Collins lion 'Wallace' grabbed Carl Beaumont by the chest at the 1901 Onion Fair, but Carl Beaumont survived (but needed clean underwear.