Transcript

of

Sir Charles Horace Radford [Obituary]

Trans. Devon. Assoc., vol.  48, (1916), pp. 48-49.

by

Maxwell Adams (Ed.)

Prepared by Michael Steer

The obituary was read at the Association’s July 1916 Plymouth meeting. Plymouth Archives holds a copy of a Reconveyance dated October 2, 1907, between Sir Charles Horace Radford of Plymouth and Charles Robert Serpell of Plymouth, gentleman. It also holds a copy of a rental lease dated 18 October, 1895 between Charles Horace Radford of Plymouth, draper, and William Vosper, of Plymouth, woollen merchant. The obituary, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.

Sir Charles Radford was the third son of Mr. George David Radford, and was born in Plymouth on May 31st, 1854. Having received private tuition from Mr. Stroud, a well-known educationist in Plymouth fifty years ago, he proceeded to Amersham Hall, Caversham, near Reading, where his education was completed, when he entered the firm of Messrs. Popham, Radford, and Co. in his seventeenth year, taking an active part in the management of the firm, and displaying considerable business ability till his retirement in 1896. In 1883 he married Bessie, daughter of Mr. William May, of Devonport.
He first entered the Town Council in February, 1891, for Charles' Ward, and in November of the following year he was returned as representative of Drake's Ward. Three years later, in 1895, when again nominated for that ward, he was returned, after a strenuous contest, at the head of the poll, and in the ensuing year, 1896, was unanimously elected Mayor. Following the extension of the borough boundaries by the inclusion of Laira and Compton, he thus became the first Mayor of Greater Plymouth. Notable among the events of his first Mayoralty was the Diamond Jubilee celebration of Queen Victoria, and with his characteristic thoroughness he took a leading part in the festivities of that historic event, the ball given by the Mayoress and himself being one of the most brilliant functions that has ever taken place in the Guildhall. During his year of office he laid the foundation-stone of the Museum and Art Gallery, which it was proposed to erect as a Queen Victoria Jubilee Memorial, and although the scheme, which was warmly supported by him, was abandoned, the bolder plan was consummated in 1910 by the opening of a Free Library and Art Museum.
In November, 1907, he again occupied the Civic Chair, and on Mayor Choosing Day it was publicly announced that the King had conferred on him the dignity of knighthood.
His services to his native town as Councillor were laborious to a degree, as indicated by the fact that he was a member of the Sanitary, Finance, Water, Housing of the Working Classes, Borough Extension, Tramways and Electric Lighting Committees, and for three years he was Chairman of the Municipal Offices Committee.
It was, however, to education that he mainly devoted his attention, and many useful developments were the result of his labours in this direction. On the retirement of Alderman J. T. Bond in 1906, as Chairman of the Education Committee, Sir Charles was elected to fill the vacancy.
No record of Sir Charles' career would be complete without mention of his services as a Justice of the Peace of the County of Devon since 1895; as a Borough Magistrate from 1906; as the representative of the Plymouth Town Council on the Cattewater Board of Commissioners, and as the first Chairman of the Buckland Monachorum Parish Council, he having for some time made his home at Axtown, Yelverton, being a devoted lover of Dartmoor. Philanthropical objects in Plymouth also found in him a liberal supporter.
He became a member of the Devonshire Association in 1889, and took a great interest in the arrangements for the meeting in Plymouth in 1916, for which he had been selected as Vice-President, which office unfortunately he did not live to fill.