Into the Lion's Den

Seventy years after his death, the family of Harold Davidson, the Rector of Stiffkey, is still trying to clear his name. He was accused of misbehaving with the "fallen women" he tirelessly tried to rescue.

At the ensuing church trial, in 1932, only one of the 40 witnesses, Barbara Harris, a 17-year-old prostitute bribed with money and alcohol, testified against him. Nevertheless, the Rector was found guilty of "systematic misbehaviour" and "removed, deposed and degraded" by his nemesis, the Bishop of Norwich. [Link]

His trial was a cause célèbre and spawned a media circus, but it was the story of his bizarre death that interested me most. Having been defrocked, he took a job at Skegness playing the part of "A modern Daniel in the lion's den." Standing in a lion's cage, he preached from the Bible and spoke about the injustice he had suffered. On July 28, 1937, his co-star Freddie grew tired of his act and knocked him to the floor.

The lion then grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and stalked around the small cage shaking the poor Harold back and forth. The audience thinking it was part of the act roared with laughter and therefore it was some time before help was called. Unfortunately it was too late for Harold Davidson and he died from wounds sustained a few days later. [Link]

Born to the Big Top

A member of a famous circus family wants to strike out on his own, but a 1967 franchise deal may prevent him from using the family name.

John Ringling North II, grandnephew of circus promoter John Ringling, wants to bill the show he bought in Hugo, Okla., as “John Ringling North II presents the Kelly Miller Circus.”

North’s attorney, Lamar Matthews, said customers are unlikely to confuse “a one-ring circus in Hugo, Okla., and the greatest show on earth.” [Link]

As an aside, did you know that there's a mailing list for "anyone with a genealogical interest in circus folk"? There is also a list devoted to high-wire artists that is somewhat less popular.

Politician's Ancestors Made Strange Bedfellows

Sweden's new Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has an enviable family tree. According to the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet, his great-grandfather was the illegitimate son of a Latvian maid named Emma Dorothea Reinfeldt and John Hood—a circus director from New York with peculiar culinary habits.

John Hood was born around 1850 to a black mother and a governor from Borneo, if we are to believe the version put forward by a man who also claimed to be a cannibal and a connoisseur of dogs, cats and rats.

Reinfeldt's ancestor cut quite a dash on the Stockholm scene in the late 1880s and was said to be a great hit with the ladies. One newspaper, writing about Hood in 1880, describes him as, "an elegant vagabond with fine manners, a real dandy with a golden bracelet and a distinguished, stately appearance". [Link]