One famous name has so far been omitted. He was not native-born, nor did he meet his end in Britain, but in a marshalling yard in Canada. Nor was he even human. This was Jumbo the mighty bull elephant, born in the Sudan and killed by a locomotive shunting at St Thomas, Ontario in 1885, after the management at London Zoo had sold him on to Phineas T. Barnum’s travelling show. Even Huskisson is now remembered above all for the manner of his death, but Jumbo is remembered for being Jumbo, which in a way is a sign of greater celebrity.
