Maccomo the Lion man

Maccomo was a renowned lion tamer in Victorian England. He has been variously recorded as being Angolan, West Indian or from Liverpool. He was born somewhere between 1835 and 1840. Although his origins are so unclear, it is known that Maccomo joined William Manders' Grand National Mammoth Menagerie round about 1857. He became quite famous in his time travelling all around England. He died in Sunderland of rheumatic fever on 11 January 1871 and was buried in nearby Bishopwearmouth Cemetery.