When Buffalo Bill came to Oxford

By Alan Gallop
Author/historian

Colonel William F. Cody in 1887, aka the legendary Buffalo Bill

It was early morning on June 20, 1903.

Three chartered locomotives from the Great Western Railway Company steamed into railway sidings in Oxford.

Together they pulled 150 passenger and freight carriages. The convoy had come from Banbury, bringing something new, exciting and different to town.

It had already thrilled half the crowned heads of Europe, presidents, statesmen, the great, the good and countless plain ordinary folk across Britain.

Now it was Oxford's turn to see the spectacle known as Buffalo Bill's Wild West, a rip-roaring open-air, live-action gunpowder entertainment featuring genuine Indians from America's vanishing frontier, cowboys from its prairies and scores of skilled riders from across the globe. The people of Banbury had thrilled to the same spectacle the previous day.

Leading the company of 800 performers, behind-the-scenes staff, 500 horses and 30 buffalo was a striking 57 year old, 6 ft 2 inches tall American, his greying hair grown to his shoulders and sporting a moustache and goatee beard.

He wore leather buckskins, a crimson silk shirt, large boots and on his head he sported a large Stetson hat.

This was Colonel William F. Cody, the famous Indian fighter, stagecoach driver, buffalo hunter, Pony Express rider, army scout, "dime novel" hero and showman - better known to the people of Oxford as Buffalo Bill.

For two hours and across two shows, he saved settlers and a stagecoach from savage Indians, showed off his rifle shooting skills, danced a Virginia Reel on horseback and re-fought the Battle of Little Big Horn - also known as Custer's Last Stand - in an Oxford field. Sadly, General George Armstrong Custer still lost the day.

It was just one day 106 years ago - but the people of Oxford and Banbury still talk about it in 2009.

The story of how Buffalo Bill came to Britain with his show forms the basis of my book Buffalo Bill's British Wild West, and how he travelled from Inverness to Land's End thrilling Victorian and Edwardian audiences on four barnstorming tours between 1887-1904.

I first encountered 'westerns' as a child growing up in post war suburban London and the TV adventures of Roy Rogers, Maverick, Tenderfoot, Laramie and Rin-Tin-Tin and the big screen adventures of John Wayne, James Stewart, Randolph Scott and Gary Cooper.

Some films featured a character called Buffalo Bill. He popped up in comic books, too, and I always thought he was a fictional character - like James Bond - until the 1990s when I discovered he had actually lived the life he was portrayed as living on TV and the silver screen.

Then I learned he had come to Britain for more adventures - some of them amorous, many of them funny, all of them fascinating - and that was that: I had to find out more.

Happy trails to you all!