Chadwick's Circus

Written by J.P. Browne

Very little is known about Chadwick’s Circus except that it was meant to have being a premier Circus outfit that ran for several years in Ireland. It could have gone on to become one of the biggest show’s in Ireland if it wasn’t for the misfortune of it being founded at the start of World War I. Chadwick’s Circus was founded in Ireland in 1914 by an English man Henry ‘Valo’ Chadwick although he was better known as Henry Hazenberg until he changed it back to Chadwick at the start of World War I due to anti-German sentiment. (1)

The Chadwick’s were a Circus family with Henry’s Father John Henry Chadwick being one of Hengler Circus’s premier clowns throughout the 1880’s-1890’s known as ‘Little Valdo’. He like his sons after him had dreams of owing his own Circus. John Henry had a short lived show in 1894 with a partner called Friskey Gilleno in Scotland known as ‘Gilleno and Chadwicks Circus’ but it was unsuccessful with him and Gilleno being sued by some of their performers for unpaid wages (11). John Henry after having a good career in the Circus retired to Ireland in Enniskillen (9).

John Henry had a daughter who went on to have a tremendous career of her own and two sons, Henry and James who he trained in the clowning business with the brother’s eventually having their own act called the Valdo Brothers. Both brothers were contracted to Irish Circuses as an act in Ireland for various shows for several years before deciding to go out on their own. They founded their first circus in Ireland in 1912 (10), a small show called ‘Hazenberg’s Circus’ with the brother’s adopting the surname Hazenberg as their own.

With Germany declaring war on England this obviously led to a change in thinking with the brothers deciding to rename their show Chadwick’s Circus for the 1914 season. There might have being another reason for the name switch. The Fossett’s were also tenting at the time with their show being known as ‘Heckenberg’s Circus’. Hazenberg and Heckenberg are extremely similar names leading to the Fossett’s maybe taking offense that a show would try and copy their name. Ironically with the start of World War I the Fossett’s also ditched their German moniker and reverted to Fossett.

Why Chadwick began a circus in Ireland in 1914 is difficult to understand maybe like most people he thought it would be over by Christmas or with money already involved in the set-up of the circus it was easier to press on. Regardless he seems to have being a man who had plenty of experience in running shows and for the several years the circus was on the road that Chadwick’s ran it had an excellent reputation. Its first year running it advertised itself from coming from France (although they had being setting up in Ennis for the past few months before moving to their permanent winter base in Waterford) (2).  Among their company that year they some excellent artistes with their headline performer being “Togo, a Japanese, who will walk a slant rope, 50 feet high, blindfolded and his head enveloped in a sack, and then slide down the bottom.” (3) Their first season seems to have run utterly smoothly with not one complaint or incident in any paper. Their second season in 1915 they got even bigger with over ‘forty artistes’ (4) employed by the company.

By 1916 they were an established circus talked about with the best the Irish Circus had to offer. The Derry Journal wrote about their 1916 show that they ‘paid a passing visit to the city on Friday, and at both sessions large audiences filled the very extensive area under canvas. The programme was an excellent one, varied and interesting from start to finish, and all the varied and clever items combined to provide a highly enjoyable entertainment.’ (5) While the Londonderry Sentinel was even more off-hand about how good a show it was. “It is only necessary mention the fact that Chadwick’s Circus, with a star company, will visit Londonderry to-morrow, when there will be two performances—one three o’clock and another eight.” (6)

Henry’s brother, James Chadwick joined him as a circus proprietor or at least began to be listed as a circus proprietor by the 1916 season (7). With three profitable seasons behind them Chadwick’s was looking at a bright future on the Irish scene when disaster struck. Henry Chadwick the owner and proprietor of the circus was called up for active military service. With Chadwick himself gone to the front lines the circus closed down. It seems James Chadwick wasn’t called up and kept the show going in a smaller capacity as 'Chadwick's Hippodrome'.

Henry Chadwick survived the two years he served in the British Army but Chadwick’s Circus never went out again. The two brother’s kept going with the variety show until 1921 which they then sold up and opened a cinema in Monaghan Town called the ‘Town Hall Cinema’ which they ran for a year or two before deciding to go back on the road with ‘Hengler's Circus’ in 1923, where they appeared at such places as the Bristol Hippodrome and at Great Yarmouth, with their act being described as 'exceptionally clever, especially in their 'Duchess' scene, and in their grotesque fiddling in all sorts of impossible positions'. (9) The two brothers later moved into working the music halls in Britain and Ireland while also going out tenting during the summer season. The two brothers came back to Ireland for the 1930 season with ‘Ginnett’s Circus’.  James seems to have died sometime in the 1930’s. As for Henry he eventually retired and died in 1966 in Brixton, London (10).

Bibliography: 

1.     Circus Horse Dispute, 3/4/1915 The World’s Fair - https://www.labonche.net/2017/02/war-circus-news-snippets/ date accessed 11/03/2019

2.     Circus artistes wanted, The Era - Wednesday 24 June 1914

3.     Chadwicks circus, Sligo Champion - Saturday 12 September 1914 page 4

4.     Wicklow News-Letter and County Advertiser - Saturday 26 June 1915 page 5

5.     Chadwicks circus, Derry Journal - Monday 12 June 1916 page 3

6.     Chadwicks circus, Londonderry Sentinel - Thursday 08 June 1916 page 2

7.     Wicklow News-Letter and County Advertiser - Saturday 12 August 1916 page 9

8.     Irish Independent - Tuesday 27 May 1919

9.     e-mail from Arantza Barrutia 13/03/2019 

10.  The Stage - Thursday 08 December 1966 page 6

11.  Edinburgh Evening News - Tuesday 25 September 1894 page 4