CIRCUS - Henry Luigi Boswell

[rram]

I can't find Lyle in the censuses ....    Do you know who her parents were?

Father was John Henry Marr.  Mother was named "Mort" or similar; not sure if that is a surname or a given name or a nickname.

She had a brother also named John Henry Marr.  She was the first born in a large family, so probably the father was born roughly 20 years earlier (just guessing).  Other siblings: Thomas, Albert, Herbert?, Nellie, William, Lilly, Frank, possibly others, some others died in childhood.  Most or all were born in England (Lancashire/Cheshire), many emigrated to South Africa around 1905 give or take a few years.

That's as far back as I have.  I'd love to trace more.  Thanks for looking!

[rram]

Boswell-Wilkie Circus, don't know when or where.

[deb usa]

Thanks for the extra info on Lyle's family ...I will have a look around.

re; The poster ..could be in South Africa as the price is 10c = 10 cents.

I remember going to the BW circus when I lived in Cape Town, South Africa

[rram]

I shouldn't be spending time this way right now, but found this:

The Boswell Wilkie Circus, run by the respondent, is the product of an amalgamation in 1963 of two circus businesses called respectively "Boswell's Circus" and "Wilkie's Circus". Boswell's Circus has quite a long history. In about 1911 four Boswell brothers, Jim, Walter, Sidney and Alfred, the sons of James Boswell, a circus and menagerie proprietor in Britain, came to South Africa to work for the circus of a Madame Frank Fillis. When the Fillis circus broke up in 1913 the Boswell brothers started their own circus under the name and style of "Boswell Brothers Circus". This circus thereafter continued to operate in South Africa in association with the name Boswell. In 1948 a company, Boswell Brothers Circus (Pty) Limited, was incorporated to run what was then styled the "Boswell Circus" or, sometimes it would seem,"Boswell's Circus". This company was "owned" by the Boswell family.

 -- from http://www.saflii.org.za/za/cases/ZASCA/1985/64.html

Biography of Brian Boswell:  http://freddevries.co.za/archive/2006/11/23/Brian-Boswell.aspx

There was a Boswell Bros. Circus operating in 1962 in the USA, headquartered in North Carolina. [on edit: nothing to do with S.A. Boswells.]

[deb usa]

Thanks for that rram ...I should be doing laundry 

just found this ...could he be yours?

Frank Marr
proposed address; Performer Office, 18 Charing Cross Rd
occupation; Music Hall artiste
age 50, bc 1877
Port of Departure: Durban, S.A. 
Arrival Date: 21 Mar 1927
Port of Arrival: Southampton, England 
Ports of Voyage: Algoa Bay [Port Elizabeth], Cape Town, Madeira, East London 
Ship Name: Edinburgh Castle

Can't find anything on the Marr family .... do you have any other details rram. Do you have Lyle's marriage certs ...if so what info/details are there?

deb

[rram]

Thanks.  Could be, but the birth date seems too young.  I think my Frank was the youngest of the brood and thus born no earlier than about 1894.  However, Frank Marr was in Pretoria in the late 1930s and was employed at times as a tin-smith and a mechanical handyman.  His wife was Lena.

Sorry, I have no documents.

[JStockley]

God, you lot are so quick.......... it's hard to keep up with you all ;-)

Boswell Bros USA=nothing to do with us at all, ever. The circuses in america are 'framed' around whatever name the management think will do some good.

Boswell-Wilkie [www.circus.co.za] no longer run a travelling circus. It came about when Boswell Bros sold to African Theatres in the 1960s and then amalgamated with WH Wilkie's circus (from England). The case at http://www.saflii.org.za/za/cases/ZASCA/1985/64.html was when we went out as Brian Boswell's Circus in 1982 and Wilkie took us to court to stop us using the name Boswell. We traded as 'Brians Circus' until 2004 when we reverted to Brian Boswell's Circus and Wilkie's heirs didn't have the wherewithall to stop us. The case is still used as precedent in SA Law.

The picture in your avatar was probably taken April 27 to May 2 1903 (the larger version has a zebra in it ;-) so Lyle was in SA by then, did her family follow later? Walter and Lyle were together in the UK in 1939 but you reckon she and Thelma had left to go back to live there during the 1930s?

When you say "She had a brother also named John Henry Marr.  She was the first born in a large family, so probably the father was born roughly 20 years earlier (just guessing).  Other siblings: Thomas, Albert, Herbert?, Nellie, William, Lilly, Frank, possibly others, some others died in childhood."  from where do you draw this information? For her and her husband Walter to both have relatives Nellie and Lilly is a coincidence (but not impossible ;-)

very best

Jim




 

[rram]

I have some autobiographical notes from my father (deceased) but little if any genealogical info from the 1900s-1930s era (or any previous era) other than what I've posted.  I'd rather not post his notes in a public forum.

It is possible that Lyle came to South Africa first, and the other family members followed.  By process of elimination, I surmise that they all came to S.A. from England except William Marr, who must have remained behind.

[JStockley]

Hi Jim

There was also a Walter Luigi Boswell whose birth was registered in 1883 (December quarter, Fylde 8e 683).

He crops up in the passenger lists, arriving in Southampton in 1939 and again in 1950 (from Durban South Africa on both occasions). Any relation?

Dave

hi

Arrival in 1939 states he is 55, circus proprietor,
proposed address = 169 catherine Street, leicestershire
He is travelling with THELMA BOSWELL, 24, Typist

Arrival in 1924
Boswell, Walter L,  circus proprietor, 42
Boswell, Lyle 47................................................................. could this be Lily?
proposed address; Crows Nest, Essex rd, Leicester
deb

I was talking to circus proprietor Brian Boswell today, he says he never heard of Walter Luigi Boswell having a daughter 'Thelma Boswell' but that Uncle Walter was famous for having girlfriends ;-) Was Thelma his daughter or "travelling companion"?