Eileen Wirth

From the list of elephant persons Family: Wirth

Eileen Wirth

Personal details
Country	Australia

Locations
Title	animal trainer -
Location	at Wirth Circus in Australia

Biography details

Eileen Wirth , circus animal trainer in Australia

Born ? , daughter of director Philip Wirth and director Alice Willis .

Affiliation with 1 elephants

1: Jip (attacked)

Casualties

1 casualties

1946-02-22: animal trainer Eileen Wirth attacked by Jip. grabbed her left arm in it's mouth and was about to fling her to the ground and trample her when old Princess Alice, another female elephant, broke her chains, attacked Gyp and pulled Miss Wirth to safety. Eileen Wirth Survived. Miss Wirth's forearm was fractured in two places, which was under treatment

1946-03-22: Circus elephant, equestrienne ringmaster Miss Eileen Wirth (above) had her arm broken at Northam recently. Twenty-five-year-old, two and a half ton Juvenile elephant 'Jip' was annoyed because she was not allowed to smash up her water trough.

She turned on Miss Wirth, seized with her mouth the arm reaching for the net, tossed Miss Wirth in the air and to the ground several times. Miss Wirth's forearm was fractured in two places.

1952-01-12: Six years ago Miss Eileen Wirth was attacked by a bad tempered female elephant, named Gyp. The animal grabbed her left arm in it's mouth and was about to fling her to the ground and trample her when old Princess Alice, another female elephant, and the pet of the circus, came to her rescue. Alice, trumpeting madly, broke her chains, attacked Gyp and pulled Miss Wirth (Mrs Alfred Clarke in private life) to safety. Miss Wirth suffered a badly fractured arm, which has been under
treatment until recently, when she took over the management of the Mother Goose pantomime, now showing in Melbourne Gyp was banished to the Sydney Zoo, where she is today.

Miss Eileen Wirth's speciality has been the elephants She loves Princess Alice, now 104 years old, who, in a shunting emergency at Port Fairy some years ago, pushed all the rail tracks with her nose for a distance of 400 yards. The weight of the trucks was 400 tons.

On another occasion.Princess Alice was passing by the audience in the parade at the opening of
a performance when a tiny child ran from her parents across the line of the animals. Alice just picked the child up with her Trunk and lifted her back to the audience, amid tremendous applause.

Alice has always done the hard yacker at the circus. She does most of the loading and unloading
when the circus is on tour and leads the other elephants on on shipboard when they travel by sea.
Alice once put a derailed railway engine back on to the lines by her sheer strength, She was
bought by Wirths 68 years; ago and came to Australia from London. She was born in Burma.

She has become old and slow and does practically no performing in the ring, But she follows Miss Wirth round like a dog. In a chat with Miss Eileen Wirth yesterday, she mentioned that the
circus had been run continuously since 1878, when it was started by her father and his three brothers. Her sister, Miss Doris Wirth, is now managing director of the company.

Other directors are her aunt, Mrs Margaret Wirth of Sydney, wife of the late George Wirth and her
brother George. Others financially interested in the circus apart from herself, are her brother Phil and sisters Madelaine, Rill and Gladys. Phil has always been a bit of a wanderer and he has just left the circus to become a hotelkeeper in Townsville. But she expects him back some day.

"The circus is in our blood," she says, "and we can't get rid of it."

Siblings

Siblings through the father Philip Wirth (1864-06-29 -- 1937-08-29):

Madelaine Wirth Born ?
Doris Wirth Born ?
Phillip Wirth Born ?
George Wirth Born ?
Marizles Wirth Born ? Dead: † ?

Eileen Wirth s ancestral Ahnentafel:
P	I	II	III
Eileen Wirth Born: ?	Father: Philip Wirth Born: 1864-06-29	Paternal Grandfather: John Wirth Born: 1834	Paternal Great-grandfather:
		Paternal Grandfather: John Wirth Born: 1834	Paternal Great-grandmother:
		Paternal Grandmother: Sarah Phillips Born:	Paternal Great-grandfather::
		Paternal Grandmother: Sarah Phillips Born:	Paternal Great-grandmother:
	Mother: Alice Willis Born:	Maternal Grandfather: Born:	Maternal Great-grandfather:
		Maternal Grandfather: Born:	Maternal Great-grandmother:
		Maternal Grandmother: Born:	Maternal Great-grandfather:
		Maternal Grandmother: Born:	Maternal Great-grandmother:

Reference list

References

Koehl, Dan, (2025). animal trainer Eileen Wirth in Australia. Elephant Encyclopedia, available online retrieved 24 March 2025 at https://www.elephant.se/person.php?id=2051. (archived at the Wayback machine)

Sources used for this article is among others:

Gavan Donoghue, Australia, author of the book The Stratford Elephant Mystery, http://www.facebook.com/stratfordelephantmystery
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/78249666?searchTerm=arm%20broken%20by%20elephant
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/178169520?searchTerm=when%20alice%20the%20elephant%20saved%20the%20life%20of%20eileen%20wirth

Selected publications

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