An elephant trainer from Brighton was accidentally crushed when his elephants were alighting a train in
London to perform in a theatre
The famous elephant trainer George Lockhart was born in Edinburgh in 1849. He and his wife, fellow Scot Nannette
Shelton, were residents of the Preston area of Brighton for many years. Their house on Harrington Road they named
Elephanta Lodge!
George toured the country by railway with his four performing elephants in covered cattle trucks, each with its own
keeper. On Sunday 24 January 1904 the troupe arrived at Hoe Street Station (now Walthamstow Central) in north east
London, for an engagement at the New Palace of Varieties. Three of the elephants were ‘babies’ and “in high good
humour… trumpeting shrilly and placing their trunks in their trainer’s hand as a sign of their joy at being released from
durance vile.” Charlie, the forth and largest and Mr Lockhart’s favourite, wasn’t in such good spirits, perhaps nervous.
Normally docile and well-behaved she “made off at a trot towards another part of the goods yard” Mr Lockhart and a
keeper attempted to stop her by catching her rope leash, and the others also broke loose. As Charlie tried to squeeze
between trucks Mr Lockhart was crushed between “her massive side” and a rail waggon. His death was witnessed by
his own 16 year old son George Jnr. who was naturally overcome with shock.
At the same time a ‘baby’ elephant had broken loose and made its way though the booking office and unconcernedly
onto the crowded platform sending “the passengers in waiting helter skelter” but it was soon escorted through the
streets lined with onlookers and reunited with the others in the stables at the Palace Theatre nearby.
At the inquest into Mr Lockhart’s death, the jury returned a verdict of ‘accidental death’. In the 1911 census, George’s
widow Nanette and son George Jnr. and his wife had left Brighton and the elephant business behind and were lodging
in Kilburn in London. George was the proprietor of an early cinematograph hall. But by 1921 George Lockhart Jnr
was once again a travelling circus artiste and in 1929 started a 43 year career as a ‘world famous’ ring master.