Leeson, Jack, 1917 - 1995 (Fairground Enthusiast)
Biography
Jack Leeson was born in 1917 and his early years were spent at Long Buckby, Northants, where the amusements of "Flash" George Billings and others had sparked off his lifelong fascination with everything to do with the fairground.
Jack worked as an engineer at Rugby until his retirement in the early 1980s. That engineering training resulted in an ability to describe the mechanical principles of riding devices with simple freehand sketches, supported by only a few written words. He married Win and had a daughter, Jacqueline.
Jack is considered one of the pioneering trio of fairground enthusiasts alongside Rowland Scott and Philip Bradley. This new breed of fairground enthusiasts pulled away from the strict preservation focus of past practices and turned towards the recording of contemporary change at all levels, whether technical, aesthetic or social.
From the first fairground photograph he took at Rugby Fair in June 1949, Jack dedicated himself to documenting every aspects of the British fairground from the point of arrival in the town to building up rides and stalls, to taking down and departure for the next fourty years. During his lifetime, Jack took almost 8,000 photographs recording the visual history of the fairground, the showmen and women and their way of life.
Jack's legacy to the history of fairgrounds has been celebrated on the book 'Heart of England Fairs' by Graham Downie, which features round 200 of Jack's photographs.
Jack died in 1995 in his late 70’s.
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
Jack Leeson Collection
Photographs and negatives, both collected and taken by him as well as notebooks with detailed lists of every fair visited. Jack Leeson used an elaborate system of cross-referencing which match the photographs and Jack's account of the fair. Also included are letters, scrapbooks and a collection of records of fairground music and some fairground models.