‘A fair amount of work’
Introduction
Victorian Bournemouth (257) reviews the speech TJ Hankinson gave in the chamber at the conclusion of his term as mayor. A successful local businessman, Hankinson had championed the resort’s acquisition of borough status. As a culmination of this process, he served as its first mayor. After the second mayor took office in the chamber, Hankinson spoke for some time about the town’s achievements in his year. During this, he sent several messages.
Victorian Bournemouth (257): man and speech
‘At the call of the town’
A florist’s son, Thomas Hankinson left London for Bournemouth’s healthy climate while in his twenties. Here, he founded a business. At first, this lay in retail stationery and bookselling, but it began to have ‘many ramifications’. In particular, he built a successful property business. Also, soon after his arrival, he opened his civic career by acting as an auditor for the Improvement Commission. ‘… he was a veritable Gladstone in his broad grasp of financial problems’. Hankinson’s obituary painted him as a man always with an eye for the town’s future. Against substantial opposition from reactionary, privileged people, he guided the town’s evolution into a borough. He saw no future for their desire to keep Bournemouth as an Arcadia for wealthy convalescents. Hankinson matched a strong personality to a substantial physique; he knew ‘not the word defeat’. Thus, both Hankinson’s personal and civic life illustrated the concept of improvement.
Speech
On the conclusion of his year as mayor, Hankinson rose to respond to an official vote of thanks. His speech went far beyond the ritual of polite acknowledgement. In effect, he delivered what amounted to his res gestae. He provided a lengthy and quantified account of how the council had improved Bournemouth during his year as mayor. The town’s infrastructure had developed: roads (more and better condition), sewers (likewise), and housing (many projects). These tasks had formed the main purpose of the old Improvement Commission. His perspective also provided the basis for future development: buying the Winter Gardens, improving the Pier, and new offices for the borough council. Winning agreement to petition for its borough status had required substantial effort. Hankinson did not pause. On the surface, Hankinson’s speech consisted of a town audit. He reported the achievements of his year in office. His real purpose, however, lay beyond accountancy.
Victorian Bournemouth (257): underlying messages
A new beginning
Beneath a speech peppered with numbers and facts, Hankinson sought to deliver a fundamental message. The past had gone. A new era had begun. When the town acquired its Improvement Commission, it marked a significant advance in how Bournemouth would evolve. An uncontrolled land rush without adequate drainage had created a site which, in the opinion of many medical men, had become vulnerable to cholera. Over time, the Commission improved the town’s sanitation. In this process, it slipped into acting as a governing body for other civic affairs, yet it always seemed to act as a reactive agency. Bournemouth’s rapid physical development and increasing population once again meant it needed improved governance. The situation had gone beyond the Improvement Commission’s capabilities. Hankinson emphasised in his speech that borough status and the mayor’s remit rendered obsolete the old Improvement Commission and its guidance by a chairman.
New horizon
The speech addressed, in general terms, the town’s broader horizon. Improvement would continue on several fronts. Hankinson laid the foundations for the town’s future development. ‘The Council is not only engaged in more expensive and important work than the late board but is likely itself to grow in importance.’ He appeared to envisage a more imperial status for the elected members. In this statement, he provided the basis whereby his successors could better the town, its improvement reaching higher and wider. Battles had already begun with the County over road funding. Also, questions already abounded about future civic structures that the suburban settlements could adopt. Hankinson presented the options. They could become independent, or they could enter Bournemouth’s fold. In the essential nature of improvement, achievement becomes the incentive for repetition at the next level. Bournemouth already had the basis for becoming a county borough.
Victorian Bournemouth (257): assessment
A modern society
Hankinson’s obituary portrayed him as a firm man. His physique and personality had enormous strength. His speech as departing mayor provides ample proof of that depiction. In its short life, the colony had undergone substantial social change and physical development. Sprung from a deserted heath, it had no traditions; its only perspective lay forward. In its early years, people from the upper levels of society had attempted to exert control, yet without lasting success. A constant appetite for increased commercial success attracted middling and working people. Residents and visitors needed more buildings, more shops. Such people looked to their resources for protection and prosperity. They did not need the aristocratic umbrella of paternalism, which set tradition before improvement. In this respect, Hankinson’s speech consists of an anthem to modernity and progress. This report, expressed in rational terms of numbers and facts, represented an emotional endorsement of improvement and success.
Improvement all round
Hankinson showed how much improvement could occur in just a single year. His numbers and facts measured this achievement. The force of his argument became a deluge to wash away gainsayers, should they have existed. Bournemouth had never wanted for confidence. Now, Hankinson illustrated the town’s historic drive towards annual improvement. As a Janus, he looked backwards on this process while pointing to its continued trajectory. He encouraged the council and future mayors to maintain this progress. The privileged amateurs, pitchforked onto the Improvement Commission, lay in the past. The days had gone when such men could interfere in drainage projects by prodding ditches with their umbrellas. The council consisted of men qualified by training or experience. They had no inborn assumption of rule but saw civic governance as another area to which they could apply the skills that had brought success and improvement to them and their families.
Takeaway
Victorian Bournemouth (257) analysed Thomas Hankinson’s res gestae speech, delivered at the conclusion of his mayoral tenure. The address summarised the year’s accomplishments with professionalism and clarity. Hankinson emphasised the commercial and social factors underpinning Bournemouth’s growth. As an influential figure in the town’s development, his actions and remarks presented a distinct alternative to the ageing practices of privilege and paternalism. Hankinson advocated modernisation, ongoing improvement, and the increasing importance of civic governance.
References
For references and engagement, please get in touch. Main primary sources: here and here (subscriptions needed). See also here and here. The featured picture shows an imagined scene.
Kitablios