‘Be your own landlord’
Introduction
Victorian Bournemouth (243) explores the brief life of Perfect Thrift, a building society active in the resort during the 1890s. Founded by William Horsley, a one-time solicitor’s clerk, later an accountant, the Bournemouth society joined a list of Perfect Thrift societies established in many towns. Vigorous advertising and regular coverage of the early ballot meetings kept Bournemouth’s Perfect Thrift in the public eye. Soon, qualified by their 6d payment each week, members began to win the £100 prize at the public lottery meetings. Horsley launched a second Perfect Thrift, but the pace flagged and references to the society evaporated by the late 1890s. Furthermore, questions arose later about William Horsley, and suspicion also may have fallen on the Bournemouth branch’s secretary.
Victorian Bournemouth (243): background
Self-help
Bournemouth would have appealed to Horsley for two reasons. First, since its origin, half a century earlier, Bournemouth had experienced continuous construction programmes, providing a good supply of buildings to the property market. Second, as a result, the town now housed many working people. Respectable people, therefore, had a large supply of souls for saving from sloth, alcohol, sickness and illiteracy. Thus, much of the resort’s community activity consisted of Temperance meetings, the foundation of working men’s leisure clubs, a battle to establish a Mechanics’ Institute, and programmes run by the Oddfellows, Foresters and other friendly societies. The latter managed medical and burial insurance schemes, the success and worth of which depended on disciplined savings. Building Societies, a business concept based on group saving, therefore appealed to and benefited from the spreading self-help movement percolating through working people. Several had started in Bournemouth already.
Perfect Thrift
In December 1889, William Horsley spoke to about fifty working men. As his theme, he took “Thrift, Economy, Independence”. Horsley promised that working men would become house owners. The society would advance the full value of property, repayable without interest. Easy repayments, usually not exceeding the rent otherwise paid, ran over a period of years. In practice, Perfect Thrift awarded £100 lump sums to their lottery’s winner, repayable over 16.66 years. 6d a week funded membership. The press noted Enoch White present in support, of humble origin, owner of a successful nursery, and Improvement Commissioner. Over the next few years, membership rose. Ballots awarded £100 prizes. An interested press followed the Society’s progress. Indeed, the emergence of a second fund indicated that Perfect Thrift’s formula had commercial traction. This suggested that the society had found the 399 people needed to close the first fund. All seemed well.
Victorian Bournemouth (243): people
Management
Early on, Perfect Thrift attracted other powerful men, similar to Enoch White. Joseph Cutler, the voluble builder and participant in the town’s local government, and James McWilliam, who would soon become provisional mayor, both chaired ballot meetings. Both men had humble origins. The same applied to two men involved in the administration: George Mallet, Frederick Hounsell. Mallett, from Gloucestershire, went into carpentry, his father’s trade. Settled in Bournemouth by 1885, the date of his first child’s birth, Mallett had advanced to become an agent and builder. Mallett attended the first meeting, his name given as the contact in advertisements. A shoemaker’s son from Weymouth, Frederick Hounsell may have had a hard early life. In Bournemouth, aged 14, he worked as a telegraphist. Always a Post Office employee, he retired in 1902 on £220 a year. Hounsell provided supervision at the ballot meetings. Through his Oddfellow membership, he helped Hospital Sundays.
Winners
At times, the press named lottery winners. Comparison with other sources facilitates identification for some. Genealogical analysis finds that humble origins and labouring lives applied. The names included: James Kirley, riding master; Absolom Wareham, carpenter; George Phippard, carpenter; Frank Penny, cabbie; Edward Seymour, sub-postmaster; Daisy Field, a grocer’s daughter. Their wives, when found, had similar social origins. For the most part, the winners lived in Springbourne, Boscombe, and Pokesdown, areas where most of the population consisted of working families. Whatever they did with their lump-sums, the winners continued to live in the same area. Absolom Wareham appears to have lived in Gladstone Road for at least forty years. Thus, money may have provided them with some financial security, imparting stability. Edward Seymour left the post office and became an apartment manager, perhaps enabled by his winnings. Lily Penny, however, a widow in her thirties, went into service.
Victorian Bournemouth (243): aftermath
Valparaiso
Societies sometimes closed their entry after reaching a set number of members. Thereafter, the society might terminate, having fulfilled its purpose for the members. Reference to Bournemouth’s Perfect Thrift societies declines by the middle of the 1890s. ‘Having ceased to exist’, the second fund had its registration cancelled in 1898. Later that year, the society’s trustee advertised for investors to acquire several first-class building society mortgages. George Mallett’s name had vanished from the press after 1894. The name appeared once more. On January 15th, 1896, George, his wife, and four infant sons boarded the SS Orcana at Liverpool. They travelled steerage. The Orcana, owned by the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, ran between Liverpool and Valparaiso, Chile. They may have travelled on to Australia from there, but Valparaiso contained an established English section. As a rule, emigrants from the United Kingdom headed to North America or Australasia, but George chose Valparaiso.
William Horsley
Horsley, based in Yorkshire, established several, perhaps many, Perfect Thrifts across the country. His occupation field in the 1891 census reads ‘Founder of Perfect Thrifts’. He seems to have audited the books for some, if not all, the societies. He also founded the Leeds Permanent Money Society, reporting success at the 6th AGM, in 1908: ‘gratifying and satisfactory’. Press reports notice him as an auditor for the societies in Bristol and Penzance. For the latter, in 1909, the local secretary found himself in court for burning the books to hide a shortfall. Horsley gave evidence but avoided involvement. He had less luck that same year, when the Leeds missed £5,000. Furthermore, also in 1909, to protect their three children, his second, much younger, wife sued him for divorce: verbal and physical assaults, drunkenness. Horsley vanished, still at large two years later. His name does not feature in any passenger lists.
Takeaway
Victorian Bournemouth (243) has explored events that concerned Bournemouth’s two Perfect Thrift Building Society funds. Newspaper reports suggest that the savings society perhaps achieved a measure of success. Several people won the lottery prizes, although the draws did not happen often. Malpractice lay not far from building societies at this time and may have reached Perfect Thrift, in Bournemouth and across the network. The founder disappeared after a large shortfall emerged at Leeds, while the secretary at Bournemouth took his family to Valparaiso in 1896. Nevertheless, some working people at Bournemouth, attracted by the dream of thrift, economy, and independence, found themselves assisted by their Perfect Thrift.
References
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