Weekend warrior

1:03pm Thursday 29th March 2001

That great British institution, the Bank Holiday was the brainchild of a local polymath and reformer. JEAN MAY looks at the father of countless traffic jams.

IT'S that time of year again when every other weekend seems to be extended by a Bank Holiday. But did you know you have a local man to thank for their introduction? John Lubbock was the eldest of 11 children born in 1834 to Sir John William Lubbock, a distinguished banker, mathematician and astronomer.

He was a sensitive and highly intelligent child. His parents' attitude to the education of their children was very enlightened.

In 1836 his mother wrote: “My dear husband and I have very different views of education to what most people have.... Our great wish is to guide a child's will rather than to break it entirely, or even force it into doing what is right. We by no means wish to see our children mere automatons we wish to give them a right principle of action, and to see them hereafter do what is good and resist what is evil.”

Charles Darwin was a neighbour and close friend of the Lubbock family, living as he did at Down House.

The first contact between the two was in 1842 when John was eight years old. It was Darwin who persuaded Sir John William Lubbock to give his son a microscope, and the young John keenly enjoyed his walks and talks with the famous naturalist.

It was, very largely, from Darwin that John Lubbock acquired his love and respect for science and truth, his admirable patience and genuine modesty. As a teenager he was responsible for the drawings published in some of Darwin's books.

In 1859, John Lubbock was one of Darwin's staunchest supporters in the storm of controversy which followed the publication of his book On the Origin of Species.

At the age of 11, he went to Eton College. But as neither the educational environment of Eton, nor the curriculum which concentrated on Latin and Greek suited his son, Sir John removed him in 1848.

The following year he started work as a partner in the family bank Lubbock, Forster & Co.

Soon afterwards his father's two partners died and the young John Lubbock joined his father as director.

He continued to educate himself during his holidays and free time. When not working at the bank he programmed his day's activities from 6.30am to midnight, reading for seven to eight hours per day on a variety of subjects including history, politics, mathematics and the natural sciences.

But if he worked hard, he also played hard. He played cricket for the West Kent Club, hunted with beagles, and attended dances and parties. He always enjoyed entertaining friends, welcoming guests and parties to the family home at High Elms, near Farnborough. At all times the grounds were open on application for school treats and workhouse outings.

In 1856 he married Ellen Hordern. They had six children but Ellen died in 1879 after many years of poor health, never having recovered from a railway accident in which they were both involved.

Five years later he married again and had a further five children. On the death of his father in 1865, he succeeded to the baronetcy. As MP for Maidstone from 1870, he introduced many reform bills. His first parliamentary success was the passing of the Bank Holiday Act (1871).

He then turned his attention to the conditions of workers in shops, the reform of which he continued to press for until his death.

Sir John found himself to be the most popular figure in England. In 1900 he was raised to the peerage and took the title Lord Avebury after the prehistoric site which he had saved.

Sir John was also a prolific writer with a total of 27 published books, a geologist, anthropologist, botanist and an archaeologist. He built up a large collection of archaeological objects, including a mammoth's tusk found in Green Street Green.

During the latter part of his life he suffered from increasingly poor health, which forced him to curtail some of his activities. He died on May 28, 1913 at Kingsgate Castle, Margate, which he had purchased in 1902.

In an account of the first bank holiday, The News of the World declared: “Blessings upon the head of Sir John Lubbock who invented a decent excuse for holidays to Englishmen.”

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