Suzanne Wilkie

Madame Suzanne Wilkie was a French-born flying trapeze artiste and, with her British husband, founded South Africa's largest and most successful travelling circus.
She arrived in Britain in 1951 as Suzanne Gendarme, having been booked to appear in the circus at the amusement arcade at New Brighton, Merseyside, run by the showman Whilma Howe Wilkie. They married and in 1954 emigrated to South Africa.

Suzanne Gendarme was born in France on January 3, 1931. Circus was in the Gendarme blood - Suzanne's sister, Micheline, was a human boulet de canon and her brother Raymond, recently returned from the war in Algeria, joined her with another partner, to form the Flying Renols. The Group soon became a leading trapeze act appearing in big tops all over Europe.

In the summer of 1951 they were booked by Whilma Wilkie. Then aged 47 and married, Wilkie had started his working life in a rope factory, but at 14 had joined the amusement arcades run by his father and uncles in seaside towns such as New Brighton; they also operated hotels, restaurants and cinemas.

During the Second World War, Wilkie's New Palace Amusement Centre had housed a munitions factory, and featured in a War Office film called Wilkie at War.
When the war ended Wilkie reopened the amusement park, complete with sideshows and fairground rides. In 1949 he bought a second-hand circus tent and seating for £1500, and launched WH Wilkie's Mammoth Circus and Zoo at New Brighton.

Having met Wilkie in 1951, Suzanne Gendarme remained in New Brighton and, once his first marriage had been dissolved, they married. In 1954 Wilkie decided to take his show - and his new bride - to Africa, leaving his son George to run the New Brighton operation.

The Wilkies settled in South Africa, building up their circus to become the country's leading travelling show. Suzanne Wilkie appeared in the sawdust ring, first as an aerialist and later presenting animals, including horses, ponies, dogs, and a bird act with pigeons and exotic macaws and other parrots. She also appeared with a tiger in an illusion act.

In 1963 they bought out the long established Boswell Brothers' show, to form the Boswell-Wilkie Circus, shrewdly selling a 50 per cent share to African Consolidated Theatres.
The Wilkies staged an entirely new show each year, featuring leading acts from around the world and, in 1977 and 1995, organised visits by the Chinese and Mongolian State Circuses. But in 1991, when they arranged an African tour for the Moscow State Circus, a tornado destroyed the big top, and the couple lost an estimated half a million pounds.

In 2000, two years after her husband's death, Suzanne Wilkie retired. Thereafter, with her son and three daughters, she ran circus schools and small shows.
Brian Boswell, a descendant of the Boswell Brothers, runs the Boswell circus today.

Telegraph, London