Martini Maccomo

Martini Maccomo became a nationally known lion tamer and a leading attraction in Manders' travelling menagerie. Publicity presented him as Angolan, although his origins remain uncertain; Historic England considers a Liverpool birth and Caribbean ancestry more likely. He died at Sunderland's Palatine Hotel on 11 January 1871.

His performances included staged hunts and the use of firearms. The act was dangerous for the animals, performer and audience alike, and contemporary accounts record serious injuries. Lion taming also attracted criticism for cruelty during the Victorian period.

Wallace, a lion associated with Maccomo's act, survived in a very different form. After being preserved by a taxidermist, he entered Sunderland Museum's collection in 1879 and became a familiar exhibit at what is now Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens.