Dates

• Existence: c1852 - 1931

Biography

Joseph Smith, also known as King Ohmy, because of his daring feasts of acrobatic performance, was the founder of the Ohmy Family Circus. The name Ohmy, came from the terrified ‘Oh my!’ gasps of the public while witnessing Joseph’s performance. His signature act, which catapulted him to fame, consisted of a pretend head down fall to within a few inches of the ground from a tight rope and trapeze contraption suspended 60 feet up in the air, without a safety net.

Ohmy was born at Islington circa 1852 into a circus family, his father was the proprietor of the Sans Pareil Circus and his mother an actress. He claims to have started performing age two, as the youngest performer in the wold, under the watchful eyes of several of the most prominent circus showmen of the time including Lord George and John Sanger and William Wallett, the Queen's jester.

Ohmy was an equestrian as well as a talented gymnast and acrobat and worked with the most prominent British circuses of all times including; Sanger, Hengler, Ginnett, Cook, Batty and Fanque. He was billed ‘The Sensational Flying Gymnast’ and ‘The Human Rocket’ amongst others.

In 1867, still a teenager, Ohmy found himself a circus proprietor upon the death of his father. In these early years, lacking the confidence and experience to run the business by himself, Ohmy took a partner, which was dissolved soon after. It wasn’t until 1880 that Ohmy started to experience success as a circus proprietor, when he opened his first show at Southport. During this time, he also bought a circus in Accrington and erected around 80 circus buildings in cities across England including; Rochdale, Oldham, Preston, Blackpool and Leeds.

Ohmy married Diana Morris (c.1853-1920) in 1875. Diana was a successful equestrienne on her own right. Together they had five children; Lily (1891-1941), Minnie (b.1881), Lizzie (1876-1938), Ada (1881-1918), and Claude (1879-1942).

The Ohmy children followed their parents’ footsteps into circus with Ada, Lily and Claude forming the ‘Ohmy Sisters’, an equestrian act in which Claude performed as a woman. At the beginning of the 20th century, the family were travelling around the British Isles as well as Europe. On 14th July 1914, just days before the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the Ohmy Sisters were working in Wismar, Germany. Following from these events, Great Britain declare war on Germany on 4th August and the family were caught behind enemy lines, unable to return to Britain. Overnight the Ohmys became unwelcomed enemy aliens and together with thousands of other allied countries’ citizens, were detained and interned in the infamous Ruhleben prison camp.

Ruhleben was a racecourse 10 kilometres to the west of Berlin, hastily converted into a civilian detention camp at the outbreak of the war. Although the camp held citizens from all of the allied powers, the vast majority of the detainees were male British citizens, to such an extent that the camp was dubbed ‘Little Britain’ and called ‘Ruhleben Gefangenen Lager für Engländer’ (Ruhleben prisoners camp for Englishmen) by the Germans.

A great number of prisoners were academic and artists working and studying in Germany. There were famous musicians, doctors and physicists such as James Chadwick, who later received the Nobel Prize for Physics, after discovering the neutron, which perversely led to the development of the Atom Bomb which ended WWII. Other prisoners were part of civilian ships and fishing vessels stranded in German harbours or captured at sea.

The camp held between 4,000 and 5,500 prisoners at one time in 11 ill fitted stables, which were used as barracks. The prisoners endured miserable living conditions in cramped, cold, rat and lice infested accommodation, housing as many as 200 men in each block at one time. Mattresses were made out of sacks filled with straw and some of the floors were covered in horse dung when the first prisoners arrived. Many of the detainees had to sleep in the hayloft due to the lack of beds, there was no heating and very little lighting. No cutlery or cups for drinking were provided, only tin bowls to hold food. Personal hygiene facilities were basic, consisting of military latrines, and stand-pipes and bowls for washing. Drainage across the camp was also poor, turning the ground into quagmire, which affected both hygiene and mobility. A very rudimentary and poorly supplied military hospital outside the camp took care of the sick.

The American Ambassador in Germany, James W. Gerard, visited the camp in 1915. America didn’t join the allied forces until 1917 thus he was welcomed as the representative of a neutral nation. The visit was organised by Joseph Powell, a detainee at the camp. Powell was the manager of a European film company called ‘Éclair’ before the war. Proficient in the German language and highly organised, he was elected as camp captain and liaison officer with the German officials by the other prisoners and managed to persuade Gerard to take an interest in the camp and its prisoners. Gerard, was horrified by the squalor he found at Ruhleben. The prisoners’ diet was for the most part based on meagre rations of cabbage soup, oat meal gruel and bread. Food poisoning wasn’t uncommon and profound boredom and depression was rife with some of the prisoners attempting suicide.

This visit was a turning point for the camp, as the American Embassy provided funds to improve buildings and facilities and negotiated the use of the race course for exercising and playing sports. Living conditions in the camp experienced a remarkable improvement from this point onwards. The German authorities, who vowed to adhered to the Geneva Convention, allowed the camp detainees to administer their own internal affairs.

Entertainment societies were formed including music and drama, which delivered operas, pantomime and playssuch as The Mikado and Cinderella, and productions of Shakespeare amongst other authors.

Shortly after, awareness of the appalling conditions at the camp, came to the attention of various committees and charities in England and food and medical supplies began to be sent by various organisations including the Red Cross, the Central Prisoners of War Committee and The Khaki Prisoners War Fund.

The American embassy also issues emergency passports to Allied country citizens, including Lily and Ada Ohmy family, who were fortunate enough to receiving emergency passports by special dispensation. This enabled them to return to England safely four months after their detention. In spite of their short stay in Ruhleben, Ada died in 1918 in Blackpool, age 37, reputedly due to the trauma this experience caused her. Claude, being identified as a male fit for military service however, was forced to remain interned until the end of the war, while his father Joseph served with the Royal Army Service Corps as an Officer.

Other performers imprisoned at Ruhleben included Thora, the Yorkshire acrobat and equestrian turned animal trainer, who was captured in Frankfurt, only to be released 13 months later when deemed too old for war service. Alf Jackson, of the Grecian Maids troupe, The Brothers Stafford, Bert Bernard, Kind and Cray, George Scott, the comic juggler, the Brothers Morris, and Alf Pearson, the horse rider.

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