037: Mr Sargent of Thurston’s fair, 1906
Sargent's message was clear although grammar, punctuation and spelling were idiosyncratic.
- Henry Thurston was a leading showman: working the fairs of the south Midlands in the autumn of 1906
Evidence of the black presence in Britain is both widespread and scattered. The survival of a postcard mailed in October 1906 seems to place a J. Sargent in the travelling show of Henry Thurston, a showman who had recently introduced moving films to attract crowds. Sargent – obviously of African descent – seems to have arranged for his boots to be repaired in Luton, had moved on with the show to Wellingborough, and was about to go to Northampton where he wanted “them boots” to be sent to him.
Blacks are known to have worked as lion tamers in British circuses, and the American Eph Thompson was an elephant trainer whose show was at the London Hippodrome in the 1900s. His son was also an elephant trainer. Other blacks worked in boxing booths.
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