‘Well-known public people’

Introduction

Victorian Bournemouth (186) continues studying the extent to which successful traders stepped into wider civic and community roles. This article looks at auctioneers and estate agents.

Victorian Bournemouth (186): context

Survey

Auctioneers had operated at Bournemouth as the colony began during the 1830s. Their advertisements supported the sales of the early mansion villas along what became Westover  Road. According to the directories, however, firms did not become established at Bournemouth until the 1870s. Their number increased thereafter during the rest of the Victorian period, the firms often based around two partners: Hankinson & Lane, Atkey & Roker, Joliffe & Flint. Auctioneers’ advertisements, most often for property, appeared in most editions of local media. They also handled house clearances for people ‘leaving the area’, while, by the early 1900s, car auctions appeared. Auctioneers often added ‘land agent’ or ‘estate agent’ to the census record of their occupations. The earliest and foremost estate agency, founded by William Rebbeck during the 1840s, expanded into auctions before long. The Rebbecks, William and his son Ernest provide a model for auctioneers developing into public men.

The model

The Rebbeck family provided at Victorian Bournemouth the archetype whereby business types became public men. W. E. Rebbeck, almost a founding member of the resort, created and developed the town’s main estate agency and, later, auctioneer firm. He had a continuous commitment to public service. Parish clerk of St Peter’s, Rebbeck became an early member of the Improvement Commission, at one point becoming its chairman. An important part of his community contribution consisted of transferring the decayed masonic lodge, Hengist, from Christchurch to Bournemouth. His three sons took over management of the family business, of whom the eldest, Edward Wise Rebbeck, became immersed in local politics and community affairs. Perhaps the mayoralty (1891-92) represented a pinnacle of his public service career. He also played a commanding role in Bournemouth’s Volunteers and became a board member of the Union Guardians. The family exemplified the translation of commercial success into public service.

Victorian Bournemouth (186): big dog auctioneer profiles

Establishment

Most of the men operating as auctioneers during that last two decades of Victorian Bournemouth appear to have achieved considerable commercial success. With the exception of one, who went bankrupt, the rest left estates worth four to six figures in size. Edward Rebbeck built worth to the remarkable level of £100,000, perhaps fifteen million pounds in today’s prices. Rebbeck aside, many of these men became auctioneers after having worked at unrelated occupations beforehand: bookseller, teacher, grocer, carpenter, butcher. Alexander McEwan Brown had first made Venetian blinds. As noted earlier, most created firms in partnership with another. Their firms concentrated in different parts of Bournemouth, including the suburbs. Their local success, and perhaps the immersion of several in public service, may have encouraged most to spend their lives in Bournemouth. They appear, therefore, to have evolved a personal as well as a commercial relationship to the resort.

Social standing

Identified paternal occupations as well as those for their fathers-in-law provide clues about the auctioneers’ social origins. For some, they indicate tangible respectability: a brewer employing 10 men, a master carpenter also with employees, a music professor, a farmer. Others group in the houses of grocers or such skilled artisan work as  upholstery, carpentry, vellum book-binding. Thus, they qualify as middling people, capable, commercial climbers. Their fathers-in-law had a similar standing, if not higher. In addition to a teacher, farmer, butcher, saddler, and greengrocer, they included a gentleman, a surgeon, and a Congregational Minister. Apart from Edward Rebbeck, a Bournemouth native, the others immigrated, some from nearby but others from London, McEwan Brown a Scottish native. In this respect, they resembled the rest of middling Bournemouth. Their participation in one of Bournemouth’s two main industries, land and lodging-houses, however, provided wealth in such levels to guarantee considerable social elevation.

Victorian Bournemouth (186): civic and community men

Local Government

Several auctioneers developed careers in public service by becoming councillors, two of whom held the first and second mayoralty: Hankinson, Rebbeck.  Others, however, did not travel so far, but still participated in civic life as councillors or aldermen. These included Mitchell Roker, Charles Frampton, and Alfred Joliffe. Frampton had played a leading role in Winton affairs during its brief time as a District Council. Ernest Lane, Hankinson’s partner in their auctioneer business, also served on the council. Charles Wyatt, McEwan Brown’s partner, a former schoolmaster, reached the bench, administering local justice together with other magistrates. Edward Rebbeck had long sat as a member of the old Improvement Commission, its chairman on more than one occasion. Perhaps dwarfing the public achievements of other auctioneers stood Thomas Hankinson. Long active in the Improvement Commission, officer and board member, he lead the movement which, despite considerable delaying opposition, brought borough status to Bournemouth.

Community

The press noted Albert Jolliffe as a ‘well-known public person’, tagging him thus while referring to his involvement in Bournemouth’s Volunteers. Edward Rebbeck, also a long-serving Volunteer, developed a remit in social care by serving as a Union Guardian. So too, did Charles Wyatt, cut down in his sixties by falling from his bicycle on Pokesdown hill, while travelling to Christchurch to chair a Guardians’ meeting. The public career of Ernest Lachlan Lane illustrates the social and civic breadth that men of his standing might achieve. For many years, he participated in aspects of Congregational life: talks, teas, training. The press carried repeated reference to his speaking skills. Sunday Schools claimed much of his time. He also had a lengthy association with Bournemouth’s Fire Brigade. ‘One of the most prominent professional men in the town’, he also sat on the council for a while as an Alderman.

Takeaway

Victorian Bournemouth (186) has examined from different aspects the lives and contexts of men who built successful local property businesses: auctioneering, estate agencies. Their involvement with land and property laid the foundation for, in some cases, substantial fortunes. Most of them also pursued extensive careers in public service, both civic and community.

References

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