Narrating the correlation of elephants as related to their import, groupings, breeding and transfers,
along with other elephant related topics.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Jim Stockley Collection - Chipperfields 1975

This photograph is related to research of the June 2011 ShowMe Elephants post, "Jim Stockley Collection - Chipperfields 1956." The post has garnered over 70 comments relating to the 1947/1948 import of elephants from Ceylon by the Chipperfield circus family, what became of these elephants and the eight elephants sold to Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus for their 1963/1964 European Tour.

>> "Jim Stockley Collection - Chipperfields 1956," ShowMe Elephants, 06/12/2011

"All 11 elephants doing a long mount in 1975?
Mary, Leila, Sally, Camella, Lechme, Meena, Sophie, Lisa, Manju, Mohini, Minoti.
Uncle John L Chipperfield and Alex Story at the head of Mary, cousin Tommy Chipperfield helping to straighten out Camella."
Courtesy of Jim Stockley

Alex Story shares that this group was split in three - the Big Three, the Five, and the Three Little Ones.

The Big Three (Mary, Leila and Sally) never left Chipperfield's Circus. Mary died in 1978, aged in her mid-50s, according to Jim Stockley. The becomings of Leila and Sally are unknown.

The Five (Camella, Lechme, Meena, Sophie and Lisa) were taken by Doreen Duggan. They performed with Elfi Althoff in Austria in 1975. The following year they performed on Cirque Amar in France. Jim Stockley took the five in 1978 to Circus Arnardo in Norway. Camella, Lechme and Meena would later tour with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus in the United States with Graham Chipperfield. They were eventually sold to Cirque Medrano in France.

>> "Vincent Manero Collection - Cirque Medrano," ShowMe Elephants, 07/10/2011

The Little Three (Manju, Mohini, Minoti) were with Gordon Howes for a season. These three were later sold to a circus in Australia but were stopped in South Africa and never able to leave.

5 comments:

  1. Hi Ryan, still not quite right ;-)

    "The becomings of Leila and Sally are unknown"? No they aren't ;-) Leila and Sally both remained with Chipperfields and died there in the early 1980s.

    I took the Five (Camella, Lechme, Meena, Sophie and Lisa) to Norway in 1978 - not the 3.

    very best

    Jim

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jim,
    Oops! A typo. I will correct accordingly.

    Thank you for the update with Leila and Sally. They were unknown to me but are now updated in the file which I call the "Chipperfield why-did-I-ever-get-involved-with-this Circus" :)

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  3. "Chipperfield why-did-I-ever-get-involved-with-this Circus" ..... and if I had a dollar for every time someone said that ! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lelia was the last of the older 3 to survive.

    ReplyDelete
  5. the photograph is probably 1974 as the new green 6 poler was used in 75 but not for long and then the blue 4 poler tent. What a shame that more was not made of having such a large herd or that they were not paraded as it would have been excellent publicity.

    ReplyDelete

I eagerly anticipate associating with new individuals with an interest or history in elephants, elephant history and elephant record keeping. If you have further information regarding the animals or locations questioned in the article, please leave a comment or message me in an effort to complete their records for elephant historians.