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The Public Benefit Boot Company

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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES: Surnames T to Z

Walter TAMLIN
Born 1863 in London, son of Alfred TAMLIN and his wife Elizabeth. Walter’s father managed a wholesale shoe shop at 234 High Street, St Pancras for some decades. Walter was a company shareholder and manager of the large Public Benefit Boot Co premises at 42 Corporation Street, Birmingham. In 1889 at Birmingham he married Harriett HOLMES of Belper and they had a son Edward Alfred TAMLIN born 1891 at Yardley.

Arthur David TAVINDER
Born 1852 at Burton Pidsea, Yorkshire, son of David TAVINDER, farmer, and his wife Elizabeth SUDDABY. In his teens Arthur commenced work as a commercial traveller in Lincolnshire where he married Susannah WHITE in 1877. Their children included Alice TAVINDER 1879, Annie Elizabeth TAVINDER 1881, Edith Maud TAVINDER 1885, Ethel Maria TAVINDER 1887 and Harold Arthur TAVINDER 1892. By 1891 Arthur managed the Public Benefit Boot Co premises at The Metropole, Clifford Street, York, continuing in that role into the 1900s. His wife Susannah died at York 1906 and he remarried in 1910.

George TAYLOR
Born around 1873 at Beeches Burnham, Lincolnshire. In 1891 he was a Hull boot shop assistant and lived next door to 16-year-old Laura SNOWDEN, also a boot shop assistant. They married in 1897 at Hull and by 1900 he managed the Public Benefit Boot Co premises at 38 Market Place, Gainsborough.

John Henry TAYLOR
Born 1864 at Nottingham, son of William TAYLOR, hosier, and his wife Jemima LOMAS. It is likely that, with his brother William James TAYLOR, he first worked at Jabez HARKER’s Public Benefit Boot Co establishment in Nottingham. In 1889 he married Jabez’s daughter, Susannah HARKER and their children included William Harker TAYLOR 1891, John Henry TAYLOR 1894 and Frank Jabez TAYLOR 1895. In the 1890s John and Susannah moved to Luton, Bedfordshire, where John managed the Public Benefit Boot Co premises at 21 Park Square.

Fred THISTLETHWAITE
Born 1873 at Burnley, Lancashire, son of John THISTLETHWAITE, currier and leather warehouseman, and his wife Alice WARD. At the turn of the century he lived in Bramley and worked as a boot shop assistant. From 1913 to 1919 he managed the Public Benefit Boot Co store on the corner of High Street and Gaunt Street, Lincoln.

Harry Alfred THORNTON
Born 1868 at Leicester, son of John Moore THORNTON, hosiery manufacturer, and his wife Sarah Ann BUTLER. In 1893 at Leicester Harry married Alice Maud OLIVER and their children included Henry Oliver THORNTON 1895, Charles Arnold THORNTON 1896 and Frank Kenneis THORNTON 1898. Harry worked in his father’s hosiery manufacturing business in Leicester and served on the board of Lennards Ltd of Bristol.

Ernest William TOMLINE
Born 1875 at Fiskerton, Lincolnshire, son of John Thomas TOMLINE, Church of England school master and organist, and his wife Harriett. His mother died when he was an infant and Ernest grew up in places where his father taught, Springthorpe, Lincolnshire and Helmsley, Yorkshire. He married in 1905; at the time he managed the Public Benefit Boot Co premises at 78 Lynn Street, West Hartlepool.

John James TYLER
Born 1860 at Upham, Hampshire, son of George TYLER, victualler and farmer, and his wife Harriet Eliza PAGE. In 1889 at Cirencester, Gloucestershire, he married Agnes Minnie GREENAWAY and their children included Agnes Mabel TYLER 1890 and Arthur F TYLER 1893. At the age of 20 he worked for the Public Benefit Boot Co and from 1891 to at least 1901 he managed the company’s premises at 161 Cricklade Street, Cirencester.

Isaac VAUGHAN
Born 1858 at Llansilin, Denbighshire, Wales, son of Martin VAUGHAN, carter, and his wife Maria ROBERTS. In 1880 at Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, he married Emila (Emily) SWANN and their children included Martin H VAUGHAN 1881, Nellie VAUGHAN 1882, Florence Kate VAUGHAN 1885, Mabel VAUGHAN 1890, Trevor Williams VAUGHAN 1892, Harold VAUGHAN 1895 and Muriel Ivy V VAUGHAN 1900. Throughout the 1880s and early 1900s he was associated with Public Benefit Boot Co branches in Louth and Grimsby and for some years managed the company’s substantial premises at 41 Sepulchre Gate, Doncaster.

George Herbert VICCARS
Born 1858 at Leicester, son of Thomas VICCARS, woollen merchant, and his wife Catherine. In 1890 at Leicester he married ‘the girl next door’ Alice Maud BAINES and their children included Catherine Mary VICCARS 1891, Reginald Baines VICCARS 1895 and Marjorie Warner VICCARS 1899. George worked as a commercial clerk and manager with Leicester manufacturers. He was a business colleague of the Lennard brothers and was a shareholder when Lennards Ltd was incorporated in 1896.

Robert James WALKER
Born 1854 at Leicester, youngest son of Robert WALKER, a prominent hosiery manufacturer, and his wife Elizabeth ROBERTS. Robert Jr and his brothers Theodore WALKER and William Ralph WALKER continued in the family business under the name of Robert Walker & Sons. By the 1880’s this was the largest hosiery company in the Leicester region with goods exported worldwide. In 1897 the company name was change to Wolsey, after Cardinal Wolsey whose body was buried in Leicester Abbey, near to the site of their main office. In 1910, the company moved to new premises at Abbey Meadows (which are still the company's headquarters today) and in 1920 the company was incorporated. Robert James WALKER was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a director of both the Public Benefit Boot Co and Lennards Limited. He died 19 August 1939 aged 84.

William Henry WALKER
Born 1819 at Bradmore, Nottinghamshire. In 1846 he married Anne Jane BREWIN at Leicester. By 1871 he had built an extensive business manufacturing boots and hosiery in Leicester and at that time employed 1200 people. He was a shareholder and director of Lennard Bros and died in 1905 aged 86.

Florence E WARD
Born 1882 at Leicester, daughter of Samuel Charles WARD and his wife Caroline LENNARD. At the age of 19 she worked as a machinist in the Lennard Bros shoe manufacturing business.

Samuel Charles WARD
Born 1851 at Leicester, in 1873 he married Caroline LENNARD, daughter of Frederick LENNARD and his wife Mary GANT. Their children included Harry WARD 1876, Alice Mary Ellen WARD 1878, Alfred John WARD 1880, Florence E WARD 1882, Margaret E WARD 1884, Samuel Charles WARD 1885, Clara WARD 1889 and Frank Ernest WARD 1890. He worked in the Leicester shoe warehousing operations of Lennard Bros.

Alfred William WARRY
Born 1876 at London, the son of George Augustus WARRY, carpenter and joiner, and his wife Emily WORTHINGTON. At the age of 13 he worked as a shop assistant and ten years later managed the Public Benefit Boot Co branch at 110 High Road, Chiswick. In 1897 he married Edith Eleanor SMITH and the following year their first child, Dorothy Eleanor M WARRY was born at Bromsgrove, Worcestershire.

George Edmund WEDGE
Born 1877 at Dudley, Staffordshire. From 1900 to 1901 he managed the Public Benefit Boot Co premises at 78 Lynn Street, West Hartlepool. In the early 1900s he was a district inspector and in 1920 he was appointed a director of the Public Benefit Boot Co.

Sir Arthur Frederick Pullman WHEELER
Born 1900 at Leicester, son of Arthur WHEELER (later Sir Arthur WHEELER), stockbroker, and his wife Mary PULLMAN. He was a highly regarded director of a number of public companies. In 1929 he joined the Benefit Footwear board (as Mr A F P Wheeler) at the time when Gresham Trust Ltd, of which we was then managing director, first acquired a financial interest in Benefit Footwear. He continued on the Benefit Footwear board until at least 1947 and died at his home in Ulverscroft, Leicestershire on 16 December 1964 aged 64.

Samuel Slater WHITFIELD
Born 1853 at Wetherby, Yorkshire, son of Thomas WHITFIELD, joiner and builder. He first worked as a grocer and draper before becoming a boot maker and dealer in Wetherby. He was a shareholder in the Public Benefit Boot Co and continued as a boot dealer in Wetherby into the 1900s.

W J WHITING
Mr Whiting joined the Public Benefit Boot Co in 1926 and managed one of the company shops before he was appointed inspector of the of the midlands and southern district in 1935. His primary responsibility in this role was to ensure that the company’s policies were carried out consistently throughout his region. He joined the Army in September 1941 and served with the Middle East Forces.  He returned to the company in January 1946. Further information is being sought on Mr Whiting.

John William WILKES
Born 1867 at Hitchin, Hertfordshire, son of Amos WILKES, gardener and domestic servant, and his wife Eleanor MITCHELL. In 1893 at Wolverhampton he married Julia May ELWELL and their children born in Leicester included Geoffrey William WILKES 1894, Florence May WILKES 1898, Olive Constance WILKES 1899 and Ethel Margaret WILKES 1901. In the early 1890s he managed the Public Benefit Boot Co premises a 55 Church Street, Bilston, Staffordshire.

Sir Edward WOOD
Born 16 January 1839 at Derby, son of William WOOD, engine smith, and his wife Emma PARKES. Edward’s family moved to Leicester around 1850 and in 1861 he married Ann SEWELL of Uppingham. Their children included Annie Eliza WOOD 1863, Catherine Sewell WOOD 1865 and Louisa Emma WOOD 1866. In the 1860s Edward worked briefly in the footwear trade with Pickering & Stratham before establishing his own business. In 1878 he sold his boot and shoe business (E Wood & Co) to three colleagues – Messrs Freeman, Hardy and Willis and he continued on as chairman and managing director of the new limited company. Under his guidance, Freeman, Hardy and Willis grew significantly over the following 40 years and by the 1920’s there were more than 800 retail outlets around the country. Edward was the Mayor of Leicester on four occasions and was knighted in 1906. He died 22 September 1917 aged 78.

Sir James Thomas WOODHOUSE MP (Lord Terrington)
Born 16 July 1852 at Flamborough, Yorkshire, the eldest son of James Thomas WOODHOUSE, fisherman, and his wife Dorothy MARTON. He studied law at the University of London and in 1876 he married Jessie REED of Hull. Their children included Harold James Selbourne WOODHOUSE 1877 (later Sir Harold), Walter Herbert WOODHOUSE 1878, Arthur Montague WOODHOUSE 1880, Gladys WOODHOUSE 1882, Kathleen Jessie WOODHOUSE 1884 and Horace Martin WOODHOUSE 1887 (later Sir Horace). He was appointed Mayor of Hull in 1891 and sat in Parliament 1895-1966 as Liberal member for Huddersfield. Sir James was appointed chairman of the first board of directors of the Public Benefit Boot Co in 1897. He died at his London residence in Regent’s Park on 8 February 1921 aged 68.

A G WRIGHT
Mr Wright joined the Public Benefit Boot Co in 1932 and managed one of the company shops before he was appointed inspector of the of the Leeds district in 1937. His primary responsibility as an inspector was to ensure that the company’s policies were carried out consistently throughout his region. He joined the RAF in October 1941, was mentioned in despatches and attained the rank of Flight Lieutenant.  He returned to the company in March 1946. Further information is being sought on Mr Wright.

H C WRIGHT
He joined the Public Benefit Boot Co in 1919 and first managed the Public Benefit premises at 83 Newland Avenue, Hull and then the branch at The Moorhead, Sheffield. In 1937 he was appointed inspector of the western district (encompassing Lancashire and Northern Wales). His primary role was to ensure that the company’s policies were carried out consistently throughout his region. He served the company for 55 years. His brother Herbert WRIGHT, also worked for Public Benefit in Hull, commencing work in 1919 as a young errand boy.

Harry Edgar WRIGHT
Born 1897 at Crewe, Cheshire, the youngest of three sons of Frank WRIGHT, linotype print operator, and his wife Florence STAWPERT. His mother died when he was an infant and in 1900 his father married Ann SIMISTER. In 1932 he joined Benefit Footwear and energetically built up the extensive shoe repairing operations of the company in Leeds. He was affectionately known as H.E.W. and in 1941 was a founding member of the National Association of Shoe Repair Factories (NASRF). In 1945 he was elected president of this organization that was formed to work with the wartime government to obtain ongoing supplies of leather, necessary for the repair of army boots. Under his management the Benefit Central Repairs Factory was responsible for the repair of more than 1,000 pairs of army boots per week during wartime. He died in April 1960.