John Skirrow Wright
Encyclopedia
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, England. He was involved in many aspects of Birmingham's mid-Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
life that were for the benefit of its citizens including the General Hospital, the Chamber of Commerce, The School of Art
Birmingham School of Art
The Birmingham School of Art was a municipal art school based in the centre of Birmingham, England. Although the organisation was absorbed by Birmingham Polytechnic in 1971 and is now part of Birmingham City University's Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, its Grade I listed building on...
, the Children's Hospital
Birmingham Children's Hospital
The Birmingham Children's Hospital is a children's hospital located in Birmingham, England.It provides general and emergency health care services to children in Birmingham, the West Midlands and beyond. It specialises in liver transplantation, cardiac, and neonatal surgery...
and the early Birmingham Hospital Saturday Fund
Birmingham Hospital Saturday Fund
The Birmingham Hospital Saturday Fund, now called BHSF, was founded in 1873 to raise money for hospitals in Birmingham, England.-Sunday Fund:...
and the Blue Coat School
Charity school
A charity school, also called Blue Coat School, was significant in the History of education in England. They were erected and maintained in various parishes, by the voluntary contributions of the inhabitants, for teaching poor children to read, write, and other necessary parts of education...
. Wright also invented the Postal Order
Postal Order
In the United Kingdom , a Postal Order is used for sending money through the mail. In the United States, this is known as a Postal money order...
.
Biography
Born in 1822, he came to BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
in 1838 where he was employed at the button manufactory of Smith and Kemp, where his talents marked him for a swift ascendancy from traveller to partner in 1850. As with many of Birmingham's great patrons, he was a non-conformist and whilst sharing the profits of his enterprise, he nonetheless opposed factory legislation, arguing that it interfered with the individual employer.
Whilst President of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce he came up with the idea of Postal Orders
Postal Orders of Great Britain
The United Kingdom was the first country in the world to issue postal orders on 1 January 1881. They were the brainchild of the President of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, John Skirrow Wright which was to enable poorer people to buy goods and services by post, as they were unlikely to have...
, to enable the poorer people to have the same facility to buy goods and services by post. The rich had bank accounts and could write cheques. A delegation of the Birmingham Chamber went to the annual meeting of Chambers of Commerce
Chamber of commerce
A chamber of commerce is a form of business network, e.g., a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community...
in London and John Skirrow Wright presented the idea, complete with all the details on how it would work including all the Postal Order values proposed. At first London bankers were against the idea, thinking it would affect their businesses, and the idea was rejected. However, eventually the bankers realised that the people who would use postal orders were not their customers and therefore no threat to their business. Consequently, at the Annual Meeting a year later John Skirrow Wright presented the idea again and this time it was accepted and the Postal Order system was started exactly as Skirrow Wright and Birmingham Chamber had proposed.
He became the first chairman of the Birmingham Liberal Association and at the 1880 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1880
-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987* British Electoral Facts 1832-1999, compiled and edited by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher *...
he stood for parliament as a Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
in Nottingham
Nottingham (UK Parliament constituency)
Nottingham was a parliamentary borough in Nottinghamshire, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1295. In 1885 the constituency was abolished and the city of Nottingham divided into three single-member constituencies....
. At the same time he had been helping the Liberal cause in re-elections at Birmingham. On the evening of his success, at a dinner held in his honour at the Council House, he died.
Skirrow Wright was subsequently interred at Key Hill Cemetery
Key Hill Cemetery
Key Hill Cemetery, , originally called Birmingham General Cemetery, a Nonconformist cemetery, is the oldest cemetery in Birmingham, England. It opened on 23 May 1836. Located in Hockley, the city's Jewellery Quarter, it is one of two cemeteries there...
. The funeral took place on a hot spring day, 19 April 1880. Thousands of people lined the procession route, requiring over 300 policemen to keep the route clear. The funeral had been arranged by the Metallic Airtight Coffin Co Ltd of Great Charles Street and whilst the coffin was indeed metal lined, it was nevertheless created in oak with brass furniture. The inscription on it read "John Skirrow Wright, died April 15th 1880, aged 58 years". On the lid of the coffin were placed a number of wreaths made from white camellia
Camellia
Camellia, the camellias, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalaya east to Korea and Indonesia. There are 100–250 described species, with some controversy over the exact number...
s, hyacinths, primula
Primula
Primula is a genus of 400–500 species of low-growing herbs in the family Primulaceae. They include primrose, auricula, cowslip and oxlip. Many species are grown for their ornamental flowers...
s, lily of the valley
Lily of the Valley
Convallaria majalis , commonly known as the lily-of-the-valley, is a poisonous woodland flowering plant native throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere in Asia and Europe....
and maidenhair fern
Maidenhair fern
Adiantum , the maidenhair ferns, is a genus of about 200 species of ferns in the family Pteridaceae, though some researchers place it in its own family, Adiantaceae...
.
Following the open hearse were over 20 carriages in the cortege, which, as they set off were accompanied by the bell of Handsworth Old Church. Along the route curtains and blinds of houses were closed and shops had closed for the day out of respect. At the Recreation Ground in Burbury Street, a procession of representatives from the public bodies of Birmingham formed and walking four abreast also processed to the cemetery at Key Hill until it arrived at the gates, when it split into two so that the hearse passed through the throng. The first part of the funeral service was conducted at The People's Chapel, which was arrived at by 3.00 pm. After the service, the congregation left to the strains of "The Dead March" from Saul and from there onwards, the procession wended its way on foot to the last resting place of Wright. As the coffin was lowered into the ground, the assembled people sang "Rock of Ages".
After Skirrow Wright's death, the Mayor of Birmingham, Richard Chamberlain
Richard Chamberlain (politician)
Richard Chamberlain was a Liberal and later Liberal Unionist politician in the United Kingdom.The younger brother of Joseph Chamberlain, he was Mayor of Birmingham from 1879 to 1880, and later Member of Parliament for Islington West from 1885 to 1892.- References:...
, convened a memorial committee. Most of the town politicians at the time felt that they did not wish to erect a statue, but rather more erred in favour of a portrait to hang in the new art gallery
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is a museum and art gallery in Birmingham, England.Entrance to the Museum and Art Gallery is free, but some major exhibitions in the Gas Hall incur an entrance fee...
, or perhaps a bust to be placed in the Council House. This was contrary to the expectation of the man in the street, who felt that the only way to honour Skirrow Wright was to erect a noble statue to his memory. One such person of this persuasion was a Mr Apperley who wrote to the Birmingham Daily Post, arguing that a bust in a niche of the Council House would rarely be seen except when given permission to enter the Council House. He stated that "We will have a statue if we buy it ourselves" and made it clear that the people wanted "something whereby we can show our children the form of one we love so well and instil in them the good qualities he possessed. If ever a man deserved a statue Mr Wright does and if ever the working men want a statue to anyone they want one to him"
Eventually it was concluded that a statue would fit the bill and Francis Williamson was given the commission which was wrought in marble and unveiled in front of the Council House by John Bright MP
John Bright
John Bright , Quaker, was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, associated with Richard Cobden in the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League. He was one of the greatest orators of his generation, and a strong critic of British foreign policy...
on 15 June 1883. The Birmingham Daily Mail reported that the pose of the figure was admirable with Mr Wright standing in a bold upright attitude as was his wont when addressing an audience. The statue stood in Council House Square with Joseph Priestly, and was joined by the statue to Queen Victoria in 1901. However the death of Edward VII saw that Messrs Priestly and Wright were despatched to Chamberlain Place, so that the Toft
Albert Toft
Albert Toft was a British sculptor.Toft trained in Wedgwood's pottery and studied sculpture at the South Kensington Schools under Professor Edouard Lanteri.-Notable works:...
memorial to Edward VII could take pride of place next to his mother.
The statue remained in Chamberlain Place until 1951 when it was removed to a storage depot as no suitable place for it could be found. The consequence of this dispossession was that the statue was scrapped, but not before a bronze copy of the bust was made in 1956 by William Bloye
William Bloye
William James Bloye was an English sculptor, active in Birmingham either side of World War II.He studied, and later, taught at the Birmingham School of Art , where his pupils included Gordon Herickx, Raymond Mason and Ian Walters...
, Chairman of the Technical Committee of The Birmingham Civic Society
The Birmingham Civic Society
The Birmingham Civic Society was founded at an inaugural meeting on 10 June 1918 in The Council House, Birmingham, England and is registered with The Civic Trust. The first President of the Society, the Earl of Plymouth, addressed the assembled Aldermen, Councillors, Architects and other city...
. The bust was unveiled in a niche in the Council House on 13 September 1957 where it remains.