Avoid ‘red tapeism’
Introduction
Victorian Bournemouth (233) follows the Town Interest Association, a lobbying group pressuring the Council during the early 1890s. The Association emerged after the town’s first borough election, its leader, Dr E.P. Philpots, having failed to secure a seat. Socio-economic analysis of its committee suggests that its members, respectable men, had important local commercial and community roles.
Victorian Bournemouth (233): survey
Beginnings
The borough’s first Council consisted of men with and without experience in the town’s local government. Attention spent on the mayor’s regalia and his correct form of address suggests uncertainty in the group’s identity. After the first mayor, T.J. Hankinson, leadership appeared to have less precision. The press provided constant pressure through its reporting and editorials, but some saw an opportunity to shape the Council’s agenda. Early in 1893, the Town Interest Association’s foundation meeting occurred, well attended. A meeting held soon after agreed on an objective: to “bring before the Town Council any improvements for the better entertainment of our visitors and the general welfare of the borough, and take a practical and intelligent interest in all municipal affairs.” All six wards had representatives on the committee. Characterised as a ‘public busybody’ in the press, the Association proceeded to pepper the Council with both minutiae and grand strategic points.
Active life
Dr E.P. Philpots chaired the association. He claimed that 30 ratepayers formed the association’s backbone, their property worth £100,000. Sometimes, 200 people attended meetings in the early days. Their mission statement made the town’s offer to its visitors a priority. To this end, the association, well-funded, spent much on advertising Bournemouth as a venue. The campaign appeared in 250 titles published outside London. Councillors ignored the association at first. Critics claimed they ‘pooh-poohed’ its efforts. Soon, however, after Philpots managed to have their letters read in the chamber, the Town Clerk had to respond. On occasion, the Council appeared to adopt some suggestions made. The association perhaps arrived at its summit during 1895. It mounted an attack on the mayor’s apparent self-interest concerning South Road. That autumn, Philpots attempted to influence the selection of candidates for the upcoming polls. This failed, as did his second attempt at winning office.
Victorian Bournemouth (233): people
Committee
Press reports of early meetings provide the means to reconstruct the association’s committee membership, designed to consist of 36 people. In several cases, plausible identifications have emerged from comparisons with directories and census reports. Although some appeared new to the town, others had conducted their business here for several decades. The committee contained a smattering of professionals (clergyman, solicitor, architect, auctioneer), but otherwise a range of local businessmen. This included builders, retailers, and several men who kept hotels or lodging-houses. In most cases, also, the men sprang from humble origins, their fathers retailers or artisans, even labourers. Nevertheless, they had achieved enough success to pay rates. Thus, this occupational profile corresponded to that found in the Council chamber. Indeed, two of their number would become mayor, while a few Councillors attended meetings. The association, therefore, consisted of men who may have regarded themselves as civic equivalents to the Council.
Edward Payne Philpots
Son of a successful draper (Banbury), Philpots and most of his siblings entered medicine. In later years, their father styled himself as a gentleman (estate around £6,000, 1866). Philpots trained as a physician in Aberdeen. Thereafter, a member of the Royal Geographical Society, he explored the Arctic, an island named after him. He married an Aberdonian bank manager’s daughter, but had established a medical practice in Poole by 1881, later moving to Bournemouth. He failed to win a seat in the 1890 election. The association saw him as “a gentleman who had travelled a great deal, a man of experience, a man of science, one to whom they could all look up, and a man who had stuck to the association and who they believed would still stick to it”. Further electoral failure in 1895, however, perhaps disappointed them, for he returned to the Arctic in 1896.
John Armitage Crawshaw
Son of a Yorkshire butcher, Crawshaw served a grocer’s apprenticeship before establishing such a business in Leeds. By 1891, however, the family had moved to Bournemouth, where they ran ‘Lauderdale’ as a boarding-house. Supported by one of his sons, Crawshaw also had a boot-making business. He stood without success in the 1901 polls. Unlike Philpots, Crawshaw pursued an active community life in Bournemouth. He acted as secretary for the Lifeboat Saturday Association, performing likewise for a group of committees cooperating on the Fete and Carnival. He chaired a ballot of the Starr-Bowkett building society and attended other civic meetings. In addition, he captained the bowling team and took an active part in the Cage-Birds Society. The Town Interest Association lost him as secretary in 1903. He left an estate worth almost £4,000 (1923). Although not of elevated background, Crawshaw appears to have won stature across Bournemouth’s community.
Victorian Bournemouth (233): assessment
Some success
Interference in the 1895 elections became a debacle, attracting sharp editorial criticism. A further difficulty for Philpots lay in his electoral defeat there. His Arctic return in 1896 may have lasted longer, for he did not reappear in the local press until 1900, when he chaired the Fete committee. Later that year, he at last succeeded in the polls, representing Central ward. At his celebratory dinner, he talked about the ‘old’ Town Interest Association. Even though Crawshaw remained its secretary until 1903, the group appeared to have become dormant during the late 1890s. Thus, despite early bold promises that this incarnation of such a group would outlast earlier counterparts, the creation of Philpots obtained little traction. Some may have seen it as little more than a vehicle whereby Philpots might achieve electoral success. Nevertheless, its focus on Bournemouth’s national image, while the Council did not ‘pooh-pooh’ all its suggestions.
Takeaway
Victorian Bournemouth (233) has followed the Town Interest Association as it fluttered into public attention for a short time. Philpots blazed a short-lived trajectory through local politics, but he abandoned the town, as did other gentlefolk on occasion. Perhaps the Association’s main success consisted of launching the community career of its secretary, John Armitage Crawshaw. He exemplified how individuals of modest origins could attain respectability in Bournemouth. His involvement in many activities would have established a broad presence within the community.
References
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