Ken McManus - Telegraph Equestrian acts have been key to the modern circus since the 18th century. Since then family after family - the Cookes, Gilberts, Bakers, Clarkes, Humels, Sangers, O'Briens, and Fossets among them - have made their names with horseback daredevilry. Though the McManus family did not feature on this roll call of hippodrome heroes, Ken McManus married into one that did: the Paulos. "Frisco" Frank Paulo and his wife, "Madame" Clara, formed their first circus in Ireland before the First World War. Frank's mother was a well-known clown whose own mother, "Madame Blondin," once walked a tightrope above the Niagara Falls; she was later seriously injured in a fall while attempting to walk a rope strung between church steeples in Bolton. Frank and Clara had eight children, among them Madge. She met and married Henry McManus, a former professional boxer, who joined Paulo's Circus as a stud groom. His younger brother, Ken, was a teenager when he too joined as a groom, and soon he had fallen for another of the Paulo daughters, called - like her mother - Clara. The two married in November 1943, and despite his lack of circus background, Ken McManus became a talented bareback rider. But times were hard. Before the war Paulo's Circus had comprised 14 wagons and 75 horses. By 1949, however, when Clara Paulo mère retired, it was forced to close. "Frisco" Frank had long since died of pneumonia, and the younger Paulos and their spouses joined other circuses, taking wire walking, aerial acts, clowning, trampolining, contortionism and big animal acts on tour to audiences in Britain and Europe. With the Finnish Sirkus Sariola, Ken McManus performed on horseback and also served as Ring Master. In 1953 some of the family left the troupe and Ken McManus and his wife acquired new horses, relaunching themselves two years later as The Mohawks, an act with an American Indian twist. For the next five years, from 1956 to 1960, the Mohawks performed with Britain's most famous circus, Bertram Mills, for which Clara starred in a solo ballerina act. Her speciality was to execute exquisite dance moves as Pavlova, her faithful horse, circled the ring and jumped through "balloons" - the circus name for paper hoops. In 1958 the couple developed a new show, known as the Ascots, which they infused with a strong comic element. They retired in 1978. But five years later they revived Paulo's Circus, which for the next decade was one of the country's most charming small tented circuses. It was again relaunched, in 2000, by Ken McManus's grandson, Kenny Darnell, and still tours the country. Ken McManus was born in Plymouth on February 18 1925, and followed his elder brother into the circus in his teens. In 1999 the Circus Friends Association of Great Britain awarded him and his wife a lifetime achievement award, with a presentation made in the ring of Zippo's circus in London. The couple retired to Gosberton, in Lincolnshire, finally exchanging their caravan trailer for a bungalow. Clara died in 2001. Their only child, Evelyn, herself became a talented circus artiste. Ken McManus, born February 18 1925, died August 24 2012