Edward Bostock

He was educated at Tolleshunt D'Arcy School, and at Kelvedon Collegiate School, until Christmas 1870. Then, at 12, he was taken on to the menagerie staff. Aged 15 he rescued his cousin Harriet Wombwell, herself an animal trainer, from a hyena which attacked her during a menagerie performance.

He left his mother's menagerie in 1883 and started business on his own. E. H. Bostock's Grand Star Menagerie opened at Tutbury, Staffs.

He bought his mother's show on 28/2/1889, and later acquired the menagerie of his brother Frank Charles.

His life was spent organizing and touring with his menageries in Britain, Europe and the East, with the assistance of his sons, and in promoting and managing circuses, theatres, and cinemas. His ventures in Glasgow, Ipswich, and London were of special importance.

The story is told in his book "Menageries, Circuses and Theatres", published in 1927.

He was a member of Glasgow City Council 1908 - 1911, and in 1917 was elected a J.P. He was a rotarian, a philanthropist, and a devout churchman, as well as being a Fellow of the Zoological Society.

Bostock Road in Ipswich commemorates his association with the city.

He also owned Hippodromes in Paisley, Hamilton, Motherwell, Wishaw and Greenock in Strathclyde, and a cinema at Blantyre, Strathclyde. He lived in Glasgow.

1914-08-22: Three healthy, medium-sized elephants have been requisitioned from Bostock’s Zoo at the London White City by the military authorities. It is presumed that they will be used for heavy draught purposes. At the end of the war the elephants will be returned to the menagerie. The Government fund the wages of the keepers of the animals, but otherwise there is no further payment; the Bostock people being satisfied to be freed for a time from the expensive upkeep of a trio of voracious appetites. “Besides,” as young Mr. Bostock puts it, “we are doing something to help.”