New booklet explores Leamington’s most famous faces

From elephant trainers to war heroes, artists to inventors, world champion boxers - okay, we all know about that one - but how about the leader of the BBC’s Dance Orchestra or the last Emperor of France?

Some may not have been born in Leamington, but all lived in the town at some point and played their part in its richly-assorted past.

Apart from Randolph Turpin - and yes, Alan does know the world middleweight champion grew up in Warwick but reminds his readers the boxer was actually born in Willes Road, Leamington - there are some real surprises.

Like the pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsbury, who rose to national prominence when his evidence in court sent Dr Crippen to the gallows, and Henry Peach Robinson, described as the ‘king’ of Victorian photographic picture-making, who once had a shop on the Parade.

Then there’s Prince Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte who laid claim to the French throne and travelled the world as an exile after his uncle died in 1821.

For a couple of years from 1838 Prince Louis - destined to return to France and win a landslide election to become the country’s last emperor - was renting a house in Clarendon Square and attending charity balls in aid of the Warneford Hospital.

Perhaps it’s just as well he was back ruling France before British navy admiral and first sea lord the Right Honourable Sir George Cockburn chose to die in the town in 1853.

It’s not known how often Sir George visited Leamington, or even why. What is known is that following the first Emperor Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, Sir George became his jailer during his final imprisonment on St Helena.

Sadly there is only one prominent woman in Alan’s book. And for that he begins with an apology, explaining to readers: “This does not imply the operation of any sex discrimination on the part of the author but is sadly a reflection of the lowly status of women in society for most of the nineteenth century. Not to mention their complete lack of career opportunities generally right up to the end of the Great War.”

The one exception - and Alan promises there will be more in future publications - is Victorian hymn writer Frances Ridley Havergal.

Frances, a rector’s daughter, was not only a talented musician but a linguist who could read Latin, Greek and Hebrew.

When her father remarried, Frances was given a room at the top of a fashionable house in Binswood Terrace, where her stepmother decreed she could not have too many visitors because they would wear out the stair carpet.

Instead she became a household name in Christian circles after devoting her life to writing hymns, poetry, travel and becoming the driving force behind the Young Women’s Christian Association and the all-important Temperance Movement, which in turn inspired Quaker families like the Cadburys and Frys to make drinking chocolate.

Some might say women stood a better chance of success by running away to the circus where at least they could find fame as trapeze artists or animal trainers.

That’s what Anna Pinder did, she was the mother of Sam Lockhart, who went on to flamboyantly describe himself as the world’s greatest elephant trainer.

Perhaps he was. Anna only gets a brief mention in Alan’s book but Sam, who died in 1933 and is buried in Milverton cemetery, gets his own chapter.

Today, you can still Lockhart’s Elephant House in Morton Street from where Sam used to parade his famous Three Graces down to the River Leam for a wash.

Before them came the see-sawing elephants Jock and Jenny, regular performers not only at Warwick Castle but before Queen Victoria, who was most definitely amused.

Leamington Lives Remembered is available from most local bookshops, libraries and the tourist information centre at the Pump Room. It is published by Feldon Books and costs £6.95.