Professor Higgins - The balloonist who died on his way to Roundhay Park in 1891
Professor Higgins was killed in an accident just after 5:30pm on Saturday the 8th August 1891 while attempting to travel by balloon from Kirkstall to Roundhay Park. It had been planned that Higgins and Miss De Voy, another performer that he was associated with, would perform a parachute descent for a crowd of onlookers gathered near the new entrance to the park (close to where Oakwood Clock would later stand.)
The two had been engaged to perform their act as part of the Leeds Hospital Gala earlier that week on Monday 3rd and Tuesday 4th of August but their balloon became damaged on the first day after it landed in trees so they agreed to return later in the week to give another demonstration after having it repaired. While taking off from Kirkstall, Higgins clipped telegraph wires and fell 35 feet suffering fatal injuries witnessed by a crowd of around 20,000 horrified onlookers.
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| Professor Baldwin from the Illustrated London News (Sadly I couldn't find a picture of Higgins) |
George Higgins was originally from Buckinghamshire and was living in East London while working as a coachman when he became infatuated with the act of an American daredevil calling himself Professor Baldwin. The act that Baldwin became famous for was one where he sat on a trapeze attached to a hydrogen gas filled balloon while gripping a parachute. After he had reached sufficient height (around 1,000 feet) he would throw himself off and float down to the ground.
Baldwin had perfected his act in America before coming to England and first performing it at Alexandra Palace on July 25th 1888 which appears to have made him an overnight celebrity. It seems, therefore, inevitable that people would want to try and replicate his success but very few had the courage and the contacts to make it happen. George Higgins was a person who did and he made arrangements with someone he knew, Captain Orton, the owner of a balloon called ‘Eagle’ to give an exhibition of parachuting at the Greyhound Pleasure Gardens in North London just three months later in October of 1888.
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| Balloon is seen being filled with gas. A fine silk envelope is covered by netting. |
“Professor” Higgins (as it was nearly always written by the press - keen to underline his lack of academic qualifications) is said to have trained by throwing himself out of haylofts while holding a large umbrella, gradually working up to taller structures and bigger drops. While his inspiration, Baldwin, was said to be extremely knowledgeable about the theory of ballooning and parachuting, allowing him to take calculated risks, George Higgins appears to have been the more or less a ‘stuntman’ who, knowing a rough landing was probably coming, trained physically and mentally to deal with it.
For his debut a visibly nervous Professor Higgins is said to have attracted a crowd of more than 50,000 excited onlookers. Take-off was scheduled for 4 PM but the weather was poor for ballooning with strong winds blowing from a south-westerly direction and the crowd grew impatient when nothing happened after an hour. Some of the crowd started to hurl abuse at Higgins and demand their money back and even more started to leave the park when, to everyone’s amazement, the balloon suddenly shot into the air, swaying left and right. Once the Balloon had reached a height of around 3,000 feet Higgins threw himself off and unfortunately, as it was described in contemporary reports, he began “turning ominously head over heels” until his parachute opened further and he came down safely “with a bird like motion.” As soon as he landed the overjoyed Higgins announced to the crowd that he would repeat the descent at the same spot in a weeks time.
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| Final preparations before take off |
Two months later in December of 1888, after several more routine descents, Professor Higgins arranges to make a flight from the Eagle Tavern, Snaresbrook. He reaches 4,000 feet and is about to jump when his parachute becomes tangled and he is forced to let it fall away. The balloon continues climbing and quickly reaches a height of around 9,000 feet with Higgins frantically working to bring it back down. Eventually he manages to land, around seven miles from his starting point, suffering only a sprained ankle. He tells his rescuers of having travelled through different warm and cold air currents as he rose through the clouds.
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| Parachutes were tethered to the balloon and pulled free by the act of jumping |
Professor Higgins and Miss De Voy are visiting Manchester a few weeks later in late July when another accident claims the life of Higgins’ next assistant - a man from Liverpool called Lennox. It was planned for Higgins, De Voy and Lennox to take off in the balloon and for Higgins and De Voy to parachute into a local park. For unknown reasons De Voy stays on the ground while Higgins and Lennox take off. Somewhere over Moss Side Professor Higgins decides the right time has come and throws himself off. After a descent of more than six minutes he lands in the ornamental pond of Alexandra Park excitedly telling those present it has been his longest and most thrilling descent.
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| The parachutist gripped a ring attached to the parachute |
An exhibition arranged at Bournbrook Grounds in Birmingham the next month goes wrong in a different way when, owing to high winds, Professor Higgins and Miss De Voy are unable to perform. This is apparently the fourth time this crowd have been disappointed and evidently it’s the final straw. The angry crowd surround them and demand their money back and Higgins is mobbed, spat at, physically assaulted and verbally abused with his parachute being torn to shreds. A group of police have to hold back the crowd so the two can escape in a cab.
By late 1889 Miss De Voy is well established as a parachutist in her own right and is giving exhibitions alone and with Professor Higgins. In October she sets a Women’s height record with a drop of 14,000 feet near Wolverhampton with 6 minutes spent ascending and 12 minutes spent descending. In February of 1890 tragedy nearly strikes when she is making her 20th descent near Hendon and manages to land in a lake where she is briefly knocked unconscious and dragged underwater by the material of her parachute. It is only due to the quick action of locals who manage reach her in boats and by swimming that she is saved from drowning.
In April of 1890 Professor Higgins suffers an accident while giving a demonstration in Croydon. By now he has upgraded to a powerful balloon of approximately 12,000 square feet (around 3 times the size of Captain Oates ‘Eagle’ he had used at the start of his career.) When the balloon is released it carries him effortlessly to 4,000 feet but suddenly it begins to spin and gyrate out of control causing his parachute to inflate prematurely and act like a sail. Higgins is forced to pull out his penknife and cut the parachute free (it lands in the back garden of a house - 40 Dingwall Gardens, East Croydon - to the amazement of it's occupants.) The balloon shoots up further to 6,000 feet and what happened next was described by someone who interviewed Higgins afterwards:
“..He saw nothing until he passed through some sleet and snow. He could hear, however, the sound of trains. All of a sudden, he found himself in darkness, caused, he presumed, by snow and the thick atmosphere.
He was in this snowstorm for at least ten minutes, and when he had passed through it the sun was shining beautifully. Below him he could see what appeared to him to be snowy mountains rising up and down for miles. He could see a distance of some forty clear miles, and was able to discern the sun glistening on the water at Brighton. It was evident to him that he was going towards Tunbridge Wells. He found the air getting very sharp and keen icicles were hanging from his moustache, and he had no sooner rubbed them off than others formed. For a few minutes he was quite deaf.
He now seemed to be descending on the mountains of snow, and he thought he was getting near Hastings or Brighton. He could smell the sea. Thinking he was coming down, he took four of his guy ropes, and pulled the balloon partly over on one side to allow some of the gas to escape at the mouth. The balloon then turned round three times, and he felt he was descending. He did nothing more to the balloon, merely riding on his trapeze watching for terra firma, which he did not see for some time. At length, he saw some ploughed fields, and close by there was what he took to be a large park, with white roads across it.
He then travelled about five or six miles at a very rapid pace, and saw more ploughed fields, which he thought would be a suitable place to land on. When be was about 2000 feet from the earth, he prepared to descend by hanging by one arm on to his trapeze rope as if he were using his parachute. When his feet touched the ground, the balloon, which was in front of him, dragged him for ten yards, and then rebounded some 60 feet in the air, between two trees.
Two labourers ran from opposite directions, and, in response to his signals, they arrived just as he came down a second time, and held the balloon until he let out the gas. He found that he had landed on a farm in the occupation of Mr Nash, at Penshurst, about 30 miles from Croydon [...] he said that at one time he must have been at least five miles above the earth, the highest he had ever been..”
In August of 1891 Professor Higgins and Miss De Voy are engaged to perform at the Leeds Hospital Gala at Roundhay Park where it’s planned that they will perform on both the Monday and Tuesday. On the Monday they perform several descents but their balloon is damaged later in the day when it lands in trees, ripping the delicate silk material. The crowd are naturally disappointed but it is quickly decided that Miss De Voy will return later that week on Saturday and perform near the new entrance to the park which results in loud cheers.
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| New Entrance to Roundhay Park |
The balloon is repaired over the next few days and the two are ready to make the trip from Kirkstall to Roundhay when dramatic events unfolded, as reported in the Leeds Mercury:
“..The ascent was fixed for 4.30 in the Clarence Gardens at Kirkstall, and a crowd of 20,000 people congregated in the fields round about and on the hills near. The affair was arranged by the Hospital gala committee to compensate for a disappointment on Tuesday last.
There was a strong blusterous wind blowing and the balloon, which was fully charged with gas, swayed violently. Two parachutes were attached, and the lady, being strapped to hers, took her seat on the cross-bar of the balloon. All this time the balloon was dragging the people holding her all over the ground, and it seemed madness to attempt an ascent..
Higgins crawled under to his seat by the side of Miss De Voy. Grasping his parachute lines, he shouted out “All stand clear!” but at that instant the balloon burst with a loud noise, a rent of six feet appearing, and the gas at once escaping rapidly.
Members of the committee who were holding the ropes noticed that the balloon had burst, and pulled Miss De Voy with her parachute off the balloon. Higgins seems to have lost his presence of mind completely, for he still shouted loudly “Let go all! Let go!” and at length one by one of those holding to the ropes relinquished their hold, and the balloon shot up, the wind swaying it violently.
The field is close to the highway and several feet lower than the road beside which run a number of telegraph wires about twelve yards from the ground. The wind carried the balloon over the wires, but the trapeze did not clear, and threw the professor from his seat. The unfortunate, man after striking the telegraph wires, fell 35 feet, turning a double somersault, and alighting on his back with a terrible thud upon a barrier which had been erected for the purpose of keeping the crowd back.
The crowd immediately closed around, and it was some time before Dr Keighley—a local medical man, who had seen the accident—could elbow his way to where the professor lay. It was at once apparent to him that he had received fatal injuries. The doctor ordered his removal to an hotel close at hand, and, after a delay of about 20 minutes, he was placed in bed. Brandy was applied to his lips, but he was too far gone to swallow the liquor, and in a very few minutes he died, as subsequent examination proved, from a broken back..”
Higgins had been absolutely determined to go up that day. As remembered by a friend who was present and tried to dissuade him: I put my hand on his shoulder just before he started and said, “George, don't go.” But he would.. He said, 'Let go!!' and that everybody must do as he told them. He had that in his manner. He would not be led."
The balloon, without it's passengers to weigh it down, flew off and travelled some distance before coming down around 40 miles away near Huggate Rectory, Pocklington, North Yorkshire. It had clearly been extremely high as it was covered in snow and ice. A passing group who saw it come down described the scene:
“..We were just going for a short walk with the clergyman before dinner when we perceived a large balloon rapidly approaching. It sailed over the lawn and just cleared the church spire. It had a large rent in it, and something hanging from it, which turned out to be the parachute. The balloon fell in a field close by; of course we followed it as fast as we could run. The parachute was full of snow in hard frozen blocks, and a little trapeze seat was attached.."
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| Advert for the Star & Garter Hotel where Higgins died |
On the 11th of August 1891 George Higgins was buried at Kirkstall church with a large crowd of around 10,000 present to pay their respects. An inquest was held at the Star and Garter Hotel two days later where Miss De Voy revealed that her name was really Emily Higgins and she was the wife of the deceased. When the jury begin discussing the foolishness of parachuting they were told by the Coroner that they were only there to make sure Higgins wasn’t the victim of negligence and to ensure he acted alone – on this basis it was found to be a straightforward case of ‘accidental death.’
When Emily Higgins departed Kirkstall later that evening she was gifted £1 2s 6d raised by generous locals to help with funeral expenses which she gratefully accepted. However, it came as a great surprise to the landlord of the Star and Garter when, a day later, a different lady arrived and claimed that she was Higgins wife! As reported at the time:
“..The departure from Kirkstall of Miss De Voy, after the death of Higgins, was followed by a remarkable story.
On Tuesday night Miss De Voy left the Star and Garter, and was seen in Leeds about seven o'clock, when she was in the company of a gentleman, who was probably Mr. Charles Higgins, brother to the aeronaut. Prior to leaving Kirkstall, Miss De Voy was the recipient of £1 2s. 6d., which had been subscribed towards the funeral expenses.
On Wednesday, to the surprise of Mr. Lister, the landlord of the Star and Garter, a woman about 30 years of age, dressed in deep mourning, presented herself and declared she was the widow of Higgins, and that she was sister to Miss De Voy. Mr. Lister informed her that Miss De Voy had stated at the inquest that she was the wife of Higgins, but the woman persisted in stating that such was not the case. She alleged that she was married to Higgins in 1880, and that there were four children of the marriage, and added that she had travelled from London, where she resided, and that her husband from time to time sent her money with which to support the household. The first she heard of her husband's death was on Monday night, when a friend drew her attention to an announcement of the fatality in the newspapers. As soon as she learned the news of his death she borrowed the money to pay her fare to Leeds.
The chief constable of Leeds (Mr. Webbey) on Wednesday handed to the second Mrs. Higgins 12s. 6d. balance of the subscription made to defray the cost of the funeral...”
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