Learning a new, fluid job
Introduction
Victorian Bournemouth (215) profiles the social profiles, occupations, and reputations of those who served as the resort’s early mayors. It finds a collection of meritocrats, often of humble origins, who had built solid and successful careers in their chosen businesses.
Victorian Bournemouth (215): background
Change not continuity
Bournemouth’s civic capital lay distributed amongst those who had served on the Improvement Commission. This had resulted from the 1856 Improvement Act. Although supervised by the Local Government Board, the Improvement Commission sometimes appeared to operate as an independent, parochial entity. Furthermore, on more than one occasion, the Commissioners’ actions had opened them to charges of amateurism, if not incompetence. The first Borough Council inherited much of the town’s civic capital, with many members having experience as Commissioners. Some may have thought that business would remain as usual. The architect of incorporation, however, Thomas Hankinson, the first mayor, disabused the Council of such thinking. Closing his administration, he suggested to the incoming mayor that ‘you will find your former experience as Chairman of Commissioners no criterion of the time and thought you will have to give to your new office if it is to be effectually occupied’.
Learning on the job
Hankinson’s warning broke a tradition without providing a future road map. Unless they knew about mayoral behaviour in other locations, Bournemouth’s new magistrates had to feel their way. At their inauguration, most made a statement about their year to come. Most displayed political caution by avoiding specific promises or identifying projects. The later mayors, however, perhaps thought that insufficient. Mayors Mattocks, Hoare, and Lawson each identified several named initiatives. In accounting for their year, however, most opted for vagueness in their final speech, only Mayors Hoare and Hankinson providing details. Thus, the mayors appeared to veer between operating as a chief executive or as a supervisory chairman. The Cotes administration had placed him in the former role, but his unilateralism caused resentment and divisions. Others preferred to steer initiatives that emerged during their administration, but the later mayors realised they had to commit to some identified programmes.
Victorian Bournemouth (215): social and economic profile
Social
As development increased its velocity, Bournemouth experienced tension within its social fabric. This lay between the privileged people, gentry, who had accounted for the town’s initial growth, and the middling people who had benefited from it. The old Commission had incorporated people of both backgrounds. The first mayors did not. Analysis of the mayors’ social origins indicates that most had come from humble origins. Only one mayor, James Hosker, had a father classified as a professional: a stockbroker. The rest grew up in households kept by manual and skilled workers or men who worked in commercial jobs: hotelier, estate agent, baker, commercial traveller. Most married women whose fathers performed similar occupations. Whereas the old Commission had included gentry alongside men of much lower origin, the Council valued a man’s achievement over his social background. The early mayors, therefore, reflected a social revolution undergone by the late Victorian town.
Economic
Bournemouth’s mayors of the 1890s had enjoyed considerable success in their working lives. Their occupations reflected important parts of the town’s economy. Around half had hotels. Cotes, in the Royal Bath, could look across the valley at the Royal Exeter, run by his mayoral colleague, Henry Newlyn. Webber had built the South-Western Hotel in Springbourne into a solid base for his business and community activities. Mattocks had moved from watchmaking into property development, beginning with The Tralee, a hotel. Others worked in property, either as estate agents or as builders. Mayors Hoare and Lawson had constructed several substantial buildings located in the town. Both Hankinson and Rebbeck had businesses as estate agents, but they also speculated in property. The latter, a plutocrat, had built an estate worth more than £100,000. The other mayors had medical practices. As such, they worked in the convalescent resort’s original business.
Victorian Bournemouth (215): influence and legacy
Local presence
Bournemouth, a greenfield site, had grown through immigration. All but one mayor conformed to this profile. E. W. Rebbeck’s father had come to the area in the late 1820s, later building a successful estate agency, which his sons, local born, continued to manage. Nevertheless, by the time the others achieved this office, they had spent much of their adult lives living and working in Bournemouth. Mayors Hoare, Hankinson, and Mattocks had spent over thirty years living in Bournemouth. Most of the others had still resided in the resort for around twenty years. Thus, within the local context, these men could behave almost as if they had originated there. During their time at Bournemouth, the community had developed a rich and textured terrain. Apart from religious services, a wide selection of clubs and associations had grown as if mushrooms. These provided ambitious politicians with much opportunity to build their name awareness.
Different models
From surviving obituaries and other mentions in the local press, there emerge traces of the image and reputations which early mayors established. William Hoare, on the one hand, appears as the epitome of how hard work and graft could elevate one from the lowest level to the highest. Someone who had had his ‘days of small things’ but had moved far beyond, in part by applying new technology as it came available. On the other hand, Russell Merton Cotes managed to build his reputation through philanthropy and visionary involvement in the resort’s national stature. The press remembered William Mattocks as not only a ‘pioneer legislator’ but also an innovator in his business career. Although a ‘veritable Gladstone’, Thomas Hankinson ‘liked his garden’ and supported the Oxford University Extension scheme. Thus, no single route brought these men to the mayor’s regalia except for long involvement in civic activities and community spirit.
Takeaway
Victorian Bournemouth (215) has reviewed the profiles and activities found for the borough’s first decade of mayors. Commonalities and differences appeared. At the heart of this analysis lies the finding that almost all hailed from humbler backgrounds compared to the elevated social positions they reached in Bournemouth. In a new position, the magistrates had to learn the best way to manage affairs during their years. Analysis of their business and civic records suggests that while religious and community participation seemed mandatory, each found a way to build a proprietary reputation.
References
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