Dates

• Existence: 1938 - 2014

Biography

Mary Chipperfield was born in a circus caravan in Kentish Town, London in 1938 to a long lineage of circus families and animal trainers. Her father was Jimmy Chipperfield and his mother Rose Purchase. The Purchase family had a long history of travelling menageries, and Rose had a lion act herself, while the Chipperfield name has been linked to animal performance and show business since James Chipperfield presented performing animals at the Thames Frost Fair in 1684.

Dick Chipperfield, Mary's uncle, began performing as a clown at the family's fairground variety show when he was just five while Her father Jimmy, also took part in the show as a clown, a wire-walker and an acrobat.

It was in the early 1930s that the Chipperfields started to become well established in the traditional circus business and by the end of World War II the show had become one of the largest touring circuses in Europe and travelled at least 200 horses, 16 elephants and 200 other wild animals.

Mary started riding horses in the circus at the age of ten, and eventually became a very skilled rider. She briefly left the ring to compete in show jumping when she was around seventeen, returning to the circus two years later to present her famous liberty horses and High School act.

although she continued to work with horses, over the years she trained and presented many different animals.

Mary married Roger Cawley, who had been a manager with Bertram Mills Circus, and subsequently joined Mary’s father’s business. In 1955 Mary’s father, Jimmy, had left the Chipperfield Circus to set up his own business providing animals for television and the film industry as well as circuses worldwide.

In the 1960s Jimmy started to develop drive-through safari parks, the first of which was Longleat with the Marquess of Bath, and the second Woburn Abbey with the Duke of Bedford.

In 1961 Jimmy founded Southampton Zoological Gardens, where Mary worked taming a variety of wild animals, in particular she specialised in chimpanzee acts. Although Mary and her husband were heavily involved in Jimmy's business, during this time Mary also continued to appear at numerous circuses in Great Britain, the USA and Europe presenting a wide range of animals from high school horses, to chimpanzees, elephants and tigers.

In the 1970s Mary was at the height of her fame as reflected by her appearance in the BBC’s 1977 This Is Your Life programme, interviewed by Eamonn Andrews. In 1980 she was crowned 'La Dame du Cirque' by Prince Rainier at the prestigious Monte Carlo Circus Festival. Although Mary continued her circus shows into the 1990s, by the 1980s the popularity of animals in circus had heavily declined with animal right movements taking momentum. As the International Fund for Animal Welfare was driving a strong campaign for animal circuses to be banned in 1998, the Chipperfields were brought to public attention for their practices. In 1999, Mary was found guilty of twelve counts of cruelty to animals followed infiltration by campaigners from the Animal Defenders group, who filmed their work. Mary's husband, Roger was also found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a sick elephant and they were both fined. However, this did not deter Mary, who continued to train animals and present them in circuses as late as 2006.

Mary and Roger had a son, David and a daughter, Suzanne, who also made a career training animals.

Found in 35 Collections and/or Records: