Charles Jamrach

He owned an exotic pet store on the Ratcliffe Highway in east London – at the time the largest such shop in the world.

His father, Johann Gottlieb Jamrach, was chief of the Hamburg river police (the Wasserschutzpolizei), whose contacts with sailors enabled him to build up a trade as a dealer in birds and wild animals, establishing branches in Antwerp and London.

His business included a shop and a museum – named Jamrach's Animal Emporium – on the Ratcliffe Highway and a menagerie in Betts Street, both in the East End, and a warehouse in Old Gravel Lane, Southwark.

According to a contemporary author Jamrach had an exotic stock:the elephant, rhinoceros, lion, tiger, puma, yak, bear, ibex, lemur, and baboon are represented, and sometimes by several specimens of each.

The tiger's escape, and subsequent rescue, are commemorated by a bronze statue near the entrance to Tobacco Dock, a short distance from the scene of the incident.