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The Public Benefit Boot Company

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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES: Surnames P to S

Fred Watkin PAGE
Born 1858 at Little Harrowden, Northamptonshire, son of Samuel PAGE, labourer, and his wife Charlotte SPENCER. In 1881 he married Harriet PALMER of Great Doddington. Their children included Fred Bernard PAGE 1886 and Maud Harriet PAGE 1891. Fred first worked in the boot trade as a shoe riveter at Ecton, Northamptonshire and by the age of 30 he had built up his own Wellingborough boot-manufacturing establishment – F W Page & Co. The company specialised in high-grade footwear. He was president of the Wellingborough Manufacturers’ Association and a business associate and shareholder in the Public Benefit Boot Co for many years.

Fred Bernard PAGE
Born 1886 at Wellingborough, son of Fred Watkin PAGE, boot manufacturer, and his wife Harriet PALMER. He worked in the family footwear manufacturing business – F W Page & Co and was thoroughly competent in all aspects of the manufacturing process. He was a business associate of the Public Benefit Boot Co and well known in the boot trade. F W Page & Co at that time sold footwear under trademarks that included Submarine, Midland, Gaffer, Boss, Swashticker, Skipper and Point-to-Point.

William Richard PAGETT
Born 1868 at Kidderminster, Worcestershire, son of Eli PAGETT, boot maker, and his wife Betsy. He worked initially in local carpet works but by the 1890’s he had followed his father into the boot trade. In the mid-1890’s he managed the Public Benefit Boot Co branch at 6 Church Gate, Loughborough. By 1901 he was managing a boot shop in Worthing, Sussex and he married the following year in Tetbury, Gloucestershire.

Arthur George PEARCE
Born 1881 at Turnham Green, Middlesex, son of Thomas PEARCE, a London metropolitan police constable originally from St Columb Major, and his wife Mary. At the age of 20 he was a Torquay boot dealer’s assistant. He married Emily Matilda PERROTT in 1904 at Newton Abbot and by 1914 he managed the Lennards Ltd branch at 8 Queens Street, Newton Abbot, Devon.

Albert Berry POPPLEWELL
Born 1879 at Bramley, Yorkshire, son of John Alfred POPPLEWELL, woollen waste dealer, and his wife Elizabeth Ann BERRY. At the age of 21 Albert was a boot trade salesman and a shareholder in the Public Benefit Boot Co.

William POSTLE
Born c1825 at Norwich, son of William POSTLE, cordwainer, and his wife Susannah. By the age of 15 he worked in the boot and shoe trade. In 1850  he married Sarah GRAY of Norwich and their children included Emma POSTLE 1850, William James POSTLE 1852 and Henry Walter POSTLE 1854. Following the death of his first wife, in 1866 he married Sarah A SOTHERN at Norwich. In 1890 he managed the Public Benefit Boot Co premises at 8 Lower Goat Lane, Norwich.

Charles Metcalfe PRUDENCE
Born 1863 at Aberford, Yorkshire, son of Thomas PRUDENCE, grocer, and his wife Mary. In 1889 in Bedfordshire he married Alice Gertrude BONE and their children included Ernest Charles PRUDENCE 1890, Mabel Frances G PRUDENCE 1892 and Gladys May PRUDENCE 1897. He carried on his father’s grocery business in Main Street, Aberford and by the turn of the century he had expanded the business and sold footwear – in the 1897 Public Benefit Boot Co list of shareholders he was noted as a boot and shoe dealer.

Edwin REEVES
Born 1876 in London, son of Edwin REEVES, a scientific instrument maker, and his wife Eliza BUTCHER. At the age of 14 Edwin Jr worked as a boot maker’s assistant in Hampshire and when he was 21 he married Annie LENNARD at Gloucester. By the turn of the century he was living in Bromley and managing one of Lennards Ltd shops.

Frederick James RICKARD
In 1914 he was a Lennards Ltd shareholder and managed a company branch shop at 39 Gloucester Road, Bishopton, Bristol.

William John RICKARD
In 1929 he lived at 33 Albany Road, Redruth, Cornwall, when, in conjunction with Lennards Ltd of Bristol, he applied for a patent relating to improvements in boot and shoe makers' foot gauges.

Thomas ROBERTS
Born 1832 at Hardingstone, Northamptonshire, son of Thomas ROBERTS, victualler, and his wife Catherine. In 1856 at Northampton he married Elizabeth Corby LOVELL and their children included Charles Henry ROBERTS 1859, Harry ROBERTS 1863, Annie ROBERTS 1865, Emily ROBERTS 1869 and Kate ROBERTS 1873. He worked firstly as a leather cutter in Worcester and in 1872 founded the Portland Shoe Co in Leicester. Until the firm's amalgamation with the Ward-White Co in 1979, it was the oldest private limited company in the shoe trade in Leicester still controlled and managed by descendants of the founder. Thomas and his sons Charles and Harry were all shareholders in the Public Benefit Boot Co.

Arthur Thomas ROBINSON
Born 1873 at London, son of William ROBINSON, bricklayer, and his wife Mary Jane PANNELL. In 1894 at Kensington he married Annie Elizabeth WALKER and their children included Arthur F ROBINSON 1896 and Harold C ROBINSON 1900. At the turn of the century he managed the Public Benefit Boot Co branch at 3 Lavender Hill, Clapham.

Joseph ROBINSON
Born 1847 at Brafield on the Green, Northamptonshire, son of David ROBINSON, shoemaker, and his wife Anne FAIRY. In 1880 at Nottingham he married Mary Ann STENSON. At the age of 14 he worked as a shoemaker, as were other members of his family from a young age. He later worked as a boot maker in Nottingham and was a shareholder when the Public Benefit Boot Co was incorporated in 1897.

Charles Bagnall ROE
Born 1866 at Brimingham, the son of Charles ROE, boot maker, and his wife Susannah. In 1889 he married Rose Annie HAZLEBY of Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales, and their children included Rose Dorothy M ROE born in 1892. From 1891 to 1895 he managed the Public Benefit Boot Co branch at Market Street, Abergavenny.

John George ROLLESTON
Born 1870 at Whittington, Derbyshire, son of John Rolleston, coal miner. In 1892 John married Harriet WHYATT and their children included George ROLLESTON 1893, Doris Edna ROLLESTON 1898 and John George ROLLESTON 1904. At the turn of the century John was a boot maker and clothier on High Street, Ibstock and a shareholder in Lennard Brothers of Leicester.

Jonathan ROSE
Born around 1856 in Louth, son of Jonathan ROSE, groom, and his wife Frances REED. By the age of 15 he and his twin brother William were working as errand boys. In the early 1880s Jonathan worked as a boot dealer’s assistant with the Public Benefit Boot Co. He went on to manage the large and prestigious Wakefield branch for many years. In 1887 he married Emily Jane SHACKLETON of Wakefield and they had one daughter Nellie May ROSE born in 1887.

Mrs Mary ROWLANDS (nee Smith)
Born 1860 at Ystalyfera, Glamorgan, Wales, daughter of William SMITH, boot manufacturer, and his wife Margaret THOMAS. In 1881 she married Richard Hughes ROWLANDS, a music teacher and later a schoolmaster at Broxwood Independent Chapel Boys School. Their children included William Hayden ROWLANDS c1883, Sarah Ceridwin ROWLANDS 1884, Anita Mary ROWLANDS c1887, Joan Barry ROWLANDS c1888, Richard H ROWLANDS 1889, Margaret Smith ROWLANDS 1889, Catherine ROWLANDS 1891, Rosa ROWLANDS c1895 and Frederick G ROWLANDS 1900. Her father and her six brothers all worked in the boot trade and in the early 1890’s Mary was manageress of the Public Benefit Boot Co branch at 41 Neath Road, Briton Ferry.

William Edward RUSH
Born around 1869 in London, son of Edward David RUSH, plasterer, and his wife Esther WILD. At the age of 13 he worked as an errand boy for a tallow chandler and ten years later he worked as a draper’s assistant in London. In 1897 he married Alice May KIRBY in Hertfordshire and they had a son William Henry RUSH born at Gravesend, Kent. William Edward RUSH managed Lennards Ltd boot shop at Southampton and then the company’s premises at 99 High Street, Winchester.

William SANDLE
Born 1850 in London, son of Joseph SANDLE, shoemaker, and his wife Naomi NEWTON. In 1871 at Bethnal Green, London, he married Mary Jane BLAKE and their children included Naomi Harriet SANDLE 1876 and William Joseph SANDLE 1878. William and his brothers George SANDLE and Thomas SANDLE were all shoemakers and by the age of 30, William was employing 29 staff in his Hackney boot and shoe manufacturing business. In 1897 he was a shareholder in the initial float of the Public Benefit Boot Co.

Edwin Pearce SAUNDERS
Born 1866 at Stoke Lane, Somerset, son of Thomas SAUNDERS, police constable, and his wife Elen Ann BISHOP. In 1887 at Pontypool, Monmouthshire, he married Lydia POWELL and their children included Beatrice Ellen SAUNDERS 1887, Nelson Powell SAUNDERS 1894, Rosetta SAUNDERS 1895 and Phyllis Mildred SAUNDERS 1901. Edwin originally manufactured boots from a small building in Cross Street, Kingswood, but later moved to Alsop Road where he bought several small cottages, had them demolished and erected his factory. He also bought two cottages on Downend Road and converted them into Kilvie House (now Kilvie Guest House). When his parents died, Edwin took his brothers Thomas, Charles and Harry into the business, trading as Saunders Brothers. They remained partners until 1910 when Edwin bought out his brothers – they continued working for the firm as paid employees. Edwin's son Nelson came into the business and continued footwear manufacturing when his father retired in the 1930s. Edwin was a Lennards Ltd shareholder.

Nelson Powell SAUNDERS
Born 1894 at Kingswood, Gloucestershire, son of Edwin Pearce SAUNDERS boot manufacturer and his wife Lydia POWELL. In 1915 at Bath he married Effie Alice Watts and their children include Keith SAUNDERS and Terry SAUNDERS. Nelson built the house 'Myrtle Glydd' and lived there, almost opposite the Saunders Brothers factory in Kingswood. His sons, Keith and Terry, were the last in the firm that ceased production in 1957.

William George SAUNDERS
In 1914 was a Lennards Ltd shareholder and managed a company branch shop at Bristol.

Frederick SCHOFIELD
Born 1866 at Gravesend, Kent, son of James SCHOFIELD, baker, and his wife Elizabeth. He worked as a boot salesman and buyer in Derby and later managed the prestigious Public Benefit Boot Co Metropole branch in Derby. He married at Derby in 1902 and by the 1920s he was living at Birmingham and a director of the Public Benefit Boot Co.

Harry SEAGROVE
Born 1871 at Leeds, son of Samuel SEAGROVE, carter, labourer and later a green grocer, and his wife Priscilla WEBSTER. In 1898 at Dewsbury he married Helen Annie WORSLEY. By the age of 19 he was a boot shop assistant and a decade later he was a Public Benefit Boot Co shareholder and managed the company’s premises at 9 Fountain Street, Morley, Yorkshire.

Herbert Brand SHARMAN
Born 1887 at Northampton, son of Henry SHARMAN, boot manufacturer, and his wife Emma BRAND. In the 1920’s he served as a director of Lennards Limited.

Thomas SINGLEHURST
Born 1860 at Northampton, son of Thomas SINGLEHURST, a shoemaker from Bedfordshire, and his wife Mary Ann STARMER. In 1882 at Northampton he married Mary Ann Elizabeth BRITTEN and their children included Elizabeth SINGLEHURST 1883 and Arthur SINGLEHURST 1885-1917. Thomas followed his father into the footwear business, trading as Thomas Singlehurst and Son in Northampton. In 1923 his company was manufacturing 2,000 pairs per week for the wholesale and export market. He was a director of Lennards Limited.

Harry SLANEY
Born 1878 at Pleasley, Nottinghamshire, son of Henry SLANEY, Pleasley Hill publican, and his wife Eliza LUCAS. By the turn of the century he managed a boot shop in Worksop where he lived with his wife Minnie. From 1910 to 1916 he managed the Public Benefit Boot Co premises at 97-99 Radford Road, Nottingham.

James and Olive SMEATHAM
Both worked for Benefit Footwear and managed company branches prior to their marriage. Olive commenced work in 1934 at the branch in the seaside town of Whitley Bay where the staff consisted of two female sales assistants, a manager and an errand boy. During the difficult war years Olive took over management of the branch and after the war her future husband James SMEATHAM took over management of the Whitley Bay branch.

Alfred SMITH
Born 1827 at Leicester, son of Samuel SMITH, shoemaker, and his wife Sarah. At the age of 14 he worked with his father in the boot trade. In 1846 at Leicester he married Rhoda IRELAND and their children included Edward SMITH 1848, Alfred SMITH 1850, Sarah Ann SMITH 1856, Betsey M SMITH 1860, Frederick SMITH 1861 and Walter Henry SMITH 1867. In 1883 Alfred senior managed the Public Benefit Boot Co premises at 4 North Street, Kings Lynn. Two sons, Frederick and Walter Henry, assisted their father, working for some years as boot salesmen.

Ernest Alfred SNOW
Born 1867 at Bristol, son of Thomas SNOW, grocer, and his wife Maria HERNIMAN. In 1891 at Barton Regis, Gloucestershire, he married Elizabeth Hannah MAY and their children included Kathleen Elizabeth SNOW 1892 and Harold Ernest SNOW 1897. Aged in his 20s and 30s he managed Bristol boot shops and by 1914 he was a shareholder in Lennards Ltd and managed the company’s substantial retail premises at 90 Queens Street, Cardiff.

George Matthew SPICER
Born 1848 at Saffron Walden, Essex, son of Matthew SPICER, brazier, and his wife Jane. George was educated in Royston, Cambridgeshire and in 1876 he married Mary RAYNHAM in London. He worked initially as a warehouseman in Hammersmith before going in to boot and shoe manufacturing in Islington. He was a shareholder in the Public Benefit Boot Co.

Robert William STANGROOM
Born 1877 at Middlesborough, Yorkshire, son of William STANGROOM, furnace engine driver, and his wife Maria BARWICK who were both originally from Burnham, Norfolk. At the age of 13 he worked as an errand boy in Middlesborough and by 1901 he was a Sunderland boot dealer’s assistant. From 1908 to 1909 he managed the Public Benefit Boot Co premises at 78 Lynn Street, West Hartlepool.

Samuel Frederick STANIFORTH
Born 1860 at Cromford, Derbyshire, son of Samuel STANIFORTH, tailor and draper, and his wife Elizabeth Margaret STORER. In 1884 Samuel Jr married Sarah Annie BOWLER of Belper and their children included Arthur STANIFORTH 1888, Roland STANIFORTH 1890, Mabel STANIFORTH 1893 and Annie STANIFORTH 1897. Samuel commenced his working life as a salesman in his father’s tailor shop. In the 1880s and 1890s he managed Public Benefit Boot Co premises at 109 Bath Street, Ilkeston and from 1901 he managed company premises at Birmingham.

George Henry STANDEVEN
Born 1869 at Hanley, Staffordshire, son of George STANDEVEN, coal miner, and his wife Ann GARSIDE. At the age of 22 he was a boot and shoe salesman and eleven years later managed the Public Benefit Boot Co branch at 4 Gaolgate, Stafford.

Percy STEADMAN
Born 1870 at Bristol, son of Henry Jonathan STEADMAN, wholesale boot manufacturer, and his wife Harriette Sarah BUCHANAN. Along with his brother Clifford STEADMAN, he worked in the family business and by the early 1900’s they were trading as Clifford and Percy Steadman and Company. He was a director of Lennards Limited in the 1920’s and served as a governing director of the British American Leather Co

William Henry STEVENS
Born 1850 at Shoreditch, Middlesex, son of William STEVENS, cheesemonger and grocer, and his wife Mary Ann WOODLAND. In 1878 at Leicester he married Helen Florence LEAVESLEY. He was a Leicester boot manufacturer and shareholder in the Public Benefit Boot Co.

Sydney Walter STRANGE
Born 1870 at Notting Hill, London, the son of Samuel STRANGE, who for many years managed a London boot and shoe shop. In the 1890s, Sydney, as well as two of his sisters, Florence Johnson STRANGE and Gertrude Maria STRANGE assisted their father in the boot shop. In 1893 he married Lucy USHER and their children included Sidney Vivian STRANGE 1894 and Doris STRANGE 1900. Around the turn of the century he managed Public Benefit Boot Co premises in London, Bristol and Gloucester.

Arthur Robert STUBBS
Born 1870 at Leeds, son of George STUBBS, woollen pattern man, and his wife Elizabeth. Arthur and his brother Christian Frederick STUBBS were both boot salesmen. By 1891 Arthur managed a boot shop in Leicestershire and ten years later managed the Public Benefit Boot Co premises in Normanton. He married at Wakefield in 1909.

Christian Frederick STUBBS
Born 1864 at Leeds, son of George STUBBS and his wife Elizabeth. He married firstly at Huddersfield in 1885, and secondly in 1891 to Elizabeth WORFOLK of Dewsbury. Their children included Frederick STUBBS 1892, David STUBBS 1893 and Elizabeth STUBBS 1898. The family for some time lived at Bridghouse and at the turn of the century Christian managed a boot shop in Wakefield.

Arthur SUTTON
Born 1871 at Rodborough near Stroud, Gloucestershire, son of Edward SUTTON, grocer’s assistant, and his wife Emma BRINKWORTH. In 1894 at Stroud he married Annie CORDWELL and their children included Annie SUTTON born 1895 at Cheltenham and Emily SUTTON born 1897 at Taunton. He worked firstly as a shoemaker’s assistant and by the turn of the century managed the Public Benefit Boot Co premises a 35 Pandy Square, De Winton Street, Tonypandy, Glamorgan, Wales.