Death of the Lion Queen

Figurine of the The Death of The Lion Queen in Guildhall Museum, Rochester. Copied from: http://wanderingwords.org.uk/writing/the-lion-queens-deadly-performance/

In November 1849, the menagerie reached Chatham in Kent, and it was here that disaster struck as reported by the Daily New, when the inquest took place the following January:

Stephen King, the first witness examined, said he had been in the employ of Mr Wombwell as keeper for the last six years. The deceased was a niece of Mr Wombwell's and daughter of John Bright [Blight], a bugle player in the band. It was the business of the deceased to go into the dens and perform with the beasts, which she had been in the habit of doing several times daily for the last twelve months. On Friday evening, shortly after nine o'clock, she went into the den in which a lion and tiger were kept, for the purpose of performing, as usual; the tricks played by her being principally with the former animal. She had only been in two or three minutes, but had gone through the main part of the performance, excepting that of making the lion sit down in a particular part of the cage, when the tiger being in her way, the deceased struck it slightly with a small whip which she carried in her hand. The beast growled as if in anger and crouching close to the bottom of the den stretched out its paw, as if at her leg or dress causing the deceased to fall sideways against the cage, the animal at the same moment springing at her and seizing her furiously by the neck, inserting the teeth of the upper jaw in her chin and in closing his mouth, inflicting frightful injury in the throat by his fangs. He then appeared to change his position, making a second grip across the throat of his victim. A keeper who was standing on the step of the den armed with a whip, immediately rushed to her assistance, but the animal did not loose its hold until struck over the nose violently with an iron bar and whilst King held the animal, the unfortunate female was removed from the cage bleeding profusely and life all but extinct. She was taken into one of the caravans where she was immediately attended by two medical gentlemen who happened to be present at the time of the occurrence.

Such were the margins involved between entertaining the public and loss of life.