The daredevil's downfall

Bobby Leach slipped on an orange peel and died in 1926 in Auckland.
In fairness to him, hilarity aside, he sustained a broken leg that had to be amputated, gangrene set in and the complications set in.
It would be an ignoble end for anyone but for Leach, a world famous stuntman who had been the first man to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, it was especially so.
Bobby was said to be a Cornishman but in fact was born in Lancashire where his family were involved with the mill industry.
Bobby’s talent was swimming. At 18 he went to America and began giving demonstrations in swimming and diving. He performed at Barnum and Bailey’s famous circus then in 1908, he went to Niagara Falls where he would begin a lifelong obsession.
He dived from the Steel Arch bridge - sometimes called the Honeymoon Bridge - from 208 feet and crossed the dangerous Whirlpool Rapids in a barrel four times.
Then on July 25, 1911 he performed a stunt he would forever be associated with, descending the river in a steel barrel for two and a half miles and dropping over the Horseshoe Fall from 163 feet. He was the first man to do so - although not the first person. Annie Edison Taylor had done it in 1901.
Bobby was just as fascinated with aeronautics, performing parachute descents from balloons and dropped from one plane to another by means of a rope ladder.
He planned many times to repeat his stunt at Niagara Falls but never managed it.
At 44 he married Sadie Waldraff and together they had one daughter, Pearl.
They were both with him during his publicity tour of New Zealand.
So how did someone who had done some of the most dangerous things in the world die by slipping on an orange peel?
His actual cause of death turns out to be bone cancer. It was already well advanced when he slipped and combined with amputation and gangrene, carried him off.
Bobby is buried at Waikumete Cemetery in Auckland, far from his home land and even further from the place he conquered.
Picture by Edward Koorey.