THIS snapshot by the late Herbert Auty of Keighley captures a local event which, due to wartime shortages and a preoccupation at the time with a general election, seems to have passed almost unrecorded.
He took it at the Keighley Rugby League Football Ground, Lawkholme, on the evening of July 23, 1945, during a display by Russian Tartar horsemen, “the men the Germans feared”.
The main local source of information on the Russian Tartars is their advance publicity. It was the “first time in England of these Wonderful Horsemen”, who promised “riding through fire and spectacular feats with sabres and lances”. Admission was 1s.6d., with children and members of the forces at a shilling.
A brief paragraph in the Keighley News described the Tartars as “picking up a handkerchief while riding at full gallop and riding on the side of a horse in Indian style”. Their strong-man pulled a car along by his teeth!
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