Vulcana

Miriam Kate Williams (6 May 1874 – 8 August 1946) sometimes called Kate Roberts and better known by her stage name Vulcana, was a Welsh strongwoman. With strongman William Hedley Roberts, better known as Atlas, she toured music halls in Britain, Europe, and Australia. The couple performed as The Atlas and Vulcana Group of Society Athletes.

Early life Kate Williams was born to Irish parents in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire; her father was a local preacher. Kate worked at a tannery in Abergavenny as a young woman. She met William Roberts at the local women's gymnasium he ran in 1890, when she was fifteen. They fell in love; in spite of Roberts already having a wife and family, they left town together and were never parted for the rest of their lives.

Performing career Williams's first professional appearance was as a replacement act at a fete hosted by Roberts in Pontypool, Wales. They began to be billed together as Atlas and Vulcana from the time of their first appearances in London in 1892. In 1903, Vulcana and Atlas were engaged by Harry Rickards and toured Australia. Atlas, a true showman of his times, greatly exaggerated his own and Vulcana's lifting capacities, and most of his published boasts have been dismissed. On more than one occasion, he was challenged to his face and shown to be using weights lighter than he claimed.

Authenticated feats of heroism A woman publicly displaying strength was sufficient to generate succès de scandale, as publicity stunts were then called, and Vulcana was no stranger to the art of aggrandizing tales of her exploits. However, some of the stories about her are based on genuine incidents of heroism on her part:

In 1888, at the age of thirteen, she stopped a runaway horse in Bristol. She rescued two children from drowning in the River Usk in July 1901, for which she received an award in gratitude. In 1910, Vulcana was the first to alert the police of the disappearance of her friend, Cora Crippen, who performed as Belle Ellmore,

Retirement Vulcana and Atlas moved permanently to London in the 1920s, and retired from performance in 1932.

Vulcana was hit by a car in London in 1939, and was conscious when she heard her own death pronounced. She suffered brain damage, but partially recovered, and briefly outlived Atlas and her youngest daughter, both of whom also died in 1946.

Family Vulcana and Atlas never married one another, and they billed themselves as brother and sister throughout their careers. They did however have six children together, William, Hedley, Augustus, Arthur, Nora, and Mona (1900 – 1946). No scandal resulted, as their secret was not discovered during their lifetimes.

Vulcana did not want her children left with relatives or in orphanages, and insisted on raising them herself. Thus, all of her children performed with the Society Athletes as soon as they were old enough.

Nora Roberts would go on to appear in the film Things to Come (1936).

Legacy The Vulcana Women's Circus, based in Brisbane, Australia, is named after her.