Whilst Wiltshire’s museums are full of the varied and interesting objects that define the county’s character, there are also clues within their collections to local people who have had a broader, historical impact.

I noticed this myself when I came across an image on the Chippenham Museum database http://www.chippenham.gov.uk/tourist-information/local-attractions/chippenham-museum--heritage-centre.aspx, which showed a silver and gilt hand bell, surmounted by a male figure representing industry and the handle showing the Trades Union Congress armorial emblem. A handsome piece of town silverware - but on closer inspection, the piece is inscribed ‘Presented to Florence Hancock CBE….September 1948’.

 
The hand bell

Florence May Hancock was born on 25 February 1893 in Factory Lane, Chippenham, and was one of fourteen children of Jacob Hancock, cloth weaver, and his second wife Mary Pepler, (between them Florence’s parents already had ten children from earlier marriages). Florence left school aged twelve to work in a café and two years later was employed at the Nestle Condensed Milk Company, working 55 hours a week for a wage of under 6 shillings. The company had no union, but in January 1913 the Workers Union held a recruitment meeting at the factory and Florence was the only woman to attend, starting her lifetime involvement in the trade union movement.

Some say she was inspired at the early age of ten, when her father took her to hear David Lloyd George speak, and both her parents were actively involved with current affairs, though sadly, both died before Florence was eighteen.

The Anglo-Swiss Dairy, later to become Nestles, late 19th century
Ref: P7555

Following the recruitment meeting, two men who had organised it were dismissed and Florence became a member of the strike committee that resulted. After the establishment of a union branch at the factory, she became secretary and in 1917 was appointed district officer for Wiltshire. From then on, Florence was highly active in the Labour Party and in the Transport and General Workers’ Union and became highly effective in enabling women workers to have a voice, helping to improve working conditions for women workers and legislating for the establishment of a national maternity service.

Her long years of service were recognized when she was made chair of the general council of the TUC in 1947-1948, the time that the hand bell was presented to her. Hancock’s knowledge of industrial organisation meant she was frequently in demand to sit on public bodies, including her contribution as a governor of the BBC between 1956 and 1962. She had already been made a Dame of the British Empire in 1951 - a long, long way from her initial work in the Chippenham café.

Florence may well have been toasted in her career by a pint of beer made from Warminster barley and malted at Warminster Maltings. Warminster Dewey Museum has within its collection a small packet of barley seed, something that seems small and fairly insignificant but with local and national history attached.

 
Fire at EW Beaven's Malthouses, Pound Street, Warminster, 1900-1920
Ref: P6092

Edwin Sloper Beaven, a farmer’s son, left school at the age of thirteen, much like Florence Hancock, yet he too achieved great things, notably as a pioneer in the field of barley breeding which earned him an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University. Beaven bred a variety of barley named ‘Plumage Archer’, which was the first genetically true variety of barley introduced to British farmers in 1905 and which became the mainstay of UK malting barley production for the next 50 years. Warminster Maltings, eighteenth century in origin, was remodelled in 1879 and later became an academy of barley breeding and malting under the direction of Dr ‘Barley’ Beaven until his death in 1941 – much of Beaven’s work was published posthumously in the book ‘Barley’ (1947). Warminster Maltings is still a leading malt supplier to the independent brewing sector, so next time you indulge in a drink of real ale, raise your glass to Edwin Sloper Beaven! 

 
Obituary entry in the Warminster Journal, 14th November 1941

Of course, some local achievers have left a less benign legacy and one such notable was Henry Shrapnel. As the Bradford Museum website http://www.bradfordonavonmuseum.co.uk/ mentions, Henry was born in Bradford on Avon on 3^rd June 1761, the youngest son in a family of nine children. At eighteen, Shrapnel joined the Royal Artillery. In 1784 Shrapnel invented ‘spherical case’ ammunition for use as an anti-personnel weapon– a shot-filled cannon ball which burst in mid air when fired, with obvious dire consequences to men and horses.

When the British Army adopted the weapon for use in 1803, it immediately acquired the name of the inventor: the shrapnel shell. The term ‘shrapnel’ has been lent to any military shell fragmentation ever since.

Letter from Henry Shrapnel to his friend, the Rev. Thomas Spencer at Wingfield Parsonage, 1840. It included a £3 donation towards the Reverend's proposed charity.
Ref: 768/42

Ironically, Henry Shrapnel was wounded in Flanders in 1793. He became a major ten years later and after his weapon was deemed a success in battle on 30^th April 1804, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel immediately. Shrapnel rose through the ranks, retiring from active service in 1825, though still experimenting with new inventions, patenting a percussion lock for small arms in 1834 when he was over seventy years old. He gained the title of lieutenant-general in 1837. Shells were still being manufactured to his original design until the end of World War I.

So when in your local museum, be aware that there are sometimes links to people with a national and even international impact beyond the county of Wiltshire, as these three examples demonstrate.

 
Letter from the wife of Henry Shrapnel informing the Rev. Thomas Spencer of his death on 13th March, 1842. He wished to be buried 'at Bradford and have the old vault filled up'.
Ref: 768/42

Jacqui Ramsay

Chippenham Museum and Heritage Centre, 10 Market Place, Chippenham, SN15 3HF

Warminster Dewey Museum, Public Library, Three Horseshoes Walk, Warminster, BA12 9BT

Bradford on Avon Museum,

Bridge Street, Bradford on Avon, BA15 1BY

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