Pablo
Fanque grave (30th March 1810 - 4th May 1871 )
Pablo was a circus master for three decades in
the Victorian era, the golden age of the circus. Nowadays he’s probably best
known from being mentioned a song on The Beatles Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. I was lucky to
find his grave as the cemetery - now a field in the grounds of Leeds’s
sprawling university campus - has been mostly cleared. Why this headstone
remains and thousands of others were removed must be down to luck or fame.
Not much is known about Pablo. He was black (the
first ever black circus master), born in Norwich and is one of at least five
children. It’s thought his dad was Indian and came to Britain to work as a
servant. He started work as a tightrope walker and made his debut in London
1847 when he was approximately 37. He was a also juggler and acrobat but horses
were his metier. One of his signature tricks was riding through towns with up
to 12 horses on a single rein and, inside the circus, jumping a carriage on
horseback. He did acrobatics on the backs of horses as they rode in circles and
trained 20 at a time to waltz in time to music. For three decades he toured his
circus around the country and never took it to America where slavery was still
legal.
Today Pablo's fame continues due to Beatles geeks
as John Lennon randomly bought a circus poster from an antique shop in
Sevenoaks in Kent. While resting from shooting a promotional film for Strawberry
Fields Forever he sauntered into an antique shop close to the hotel and
bought the poster for Pablo Fanque's Circus Royal. It
inspired the song Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! (Mr Kite being one
of Pablo’s performers.) Pablo married Susannah Marlaw
and they had two sons. Sadly she died in Leeds aged 47 in a circus accident.
Their son was performing a tightrope act before a large crowd when a gallery
holding about 600 people collapsed. She was pronounced dead at the scene after
heavy planks struck the back of the head. Aged 38 Pablo married Elizabeth
Corker, a 22-year-old circus rider and they had two more sons. He died aged 61
from bronchitis.
I found his grave quickly. Across the field stand
clusters of random headstones so it was a matter of walking from one to the
other. I assume he’s buried here to lie with his first wife (a census says he
was living in Stockport in Cheshire when he died.) His coffin was brought here
followed by his favourite horse, four coaches and a stream of mourners. I ran
my finger over the "Pablo" for some reason. His birth name was
William Darby and it's thought he changed his name after reading about a circus
performer in Australia called Pablo Fanque. He lies
in this grave with his second wife (also their daughter Caroline who died aged
one) and his first wife lies three feet away. St. George's Field is quiet and
relaxing now and you'd never know there're about 93,000 skeletons under the
turf. Some students don't respect the place and play football and have sex on
the grass.
One Sunday afternoon I drove to Stockport and
walked down Churchgate to see where Pablo died. He breathed
his last breath at number 22 which was The Britannia Inn but it's been
demolished. I’m sure this place looked very different in 1871 but I walked up
and down the pavement hoping I’d passed the spot where Pablo died. As I walked I
wondered where the poster is now that John Lennon bought - has Yoko got it? Has
some geek collector paid £22,000 for it? John took it home, put it above his
piano and, two weeks later, had written Being
for the Benefit of Mr Kite.
Pablo is buried next to his first
wife...
The
Britannia Inn...
