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George Parker Bidder QC obituary

The following obituary is from the
Wallington & Carshalton Herald – Saturday 08 February 1896, via the British Newspaper archive.

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Death of Mr. G.P. Bidder, Q.C.

Public references.

The inhabitants of Mission were profoundly moved on Saturday morning when they learnt
that perhaps the most distinguished inhabitant of the famous village, Mr. George Parker Bidder, Q.C. of Ravensbury Park, had passed away suddenly during the night at his town residence, Queen Anne’s Mansions. The primary cause of death was the formation of a clot of blood at the heart supposed to have been occasioned by some internal injury resulting from an accident in the streets of Manchester. He had been conducting an important arbitration case at the Assize Court in that city on the 9th of last month, and was going back to his hotel when he was knocked down and run over by a horse and van. The injuries received were not regarded as of such a character as to prevent his resuming the case on the following day, but at the close of the proceedings he was so exhausted as to necessitate his immediate return to London. On the 17th January he made his last public appearance in Mitcham at the inquiry with reference to the entrance to the proposed Lower Mitcham schools. He travelled to Mitcham
specially for that purpose, although he was then wearing surgical bandages.
After a few days rest he again resumed his professional work when he conducted the case
on behalf of the trustees of the Tower Hill schools in their claim against the London
and Blackwell Railway Company. These proceedings terminated on Saturday the 25th ult. and almost
immediately afterwards the effects of the injuries of the accident began to manifest
themselves more seriously. By order of his medical advisor he was compelled to go to
bed at the beginning of last week, and though to all appearances he was progressing rapidly
towards recovery, and the physician in attendance had given him permission to dictate instructions earlier this week concerning an important case, a sudden relapse occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning, and before his medical advisor could be summoned the eminent counsel had passed away. His death was very pathetic, but quite peaceful. His devoted wife was reading to him as he felt somewhat restless during the night when Mr Bidder suddenly complained of a pain which he thought must be due to indigestion. Mrs Bidder hastily summoned the nurse and turned to give him a little stimulant when to her consternation she found that her husband had turned quite pale. A doctor was in the mansions and he was called and arrived in two or three minutes only to tell the watchers that he was dying. Mr Bidder, apparently hearing that, put out his arm and embracing his wife he died with his head on the shoulder of her who had so ably seconded the efforts of her honoured husband. On the news being telegraphed at Ravensbury Park it soon became known in the village the bell at the parish church was tolled and many of the tradesmen at once put shutters to their shop windows, and such marks of respect have been pretty general
until after the funeral. Much sympathy has been expressed throughout the week with Mrs
Bidder and the family. Miss Bidder, Mrs Devenish, Miss Minnie Bidder, Miss Ina Bidder, now in
Calcutta, Messrs George, Harold and Morris Bidder. The concert which was to have been
held at the Vestry Hall on Wednesday in aid of the new church has been postponed out of
respect for the deceased.

Mr George Parker Bidder was the eldest son of the celebrated engineer who bore the same name and who was known in the early part of the century as the calculating boy. The future lawyer was born in August 1836 and educated at King’s College School and at the Universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge and his close and persistent study at the latter university secured for him marked academical distinction, he being 7th Wrangler in the mathematical tripos in 1838. Called to the bar in 1860 his thorough grasp of questions requiring special knowledge and skill soon placed him in the front rank of his profession and before parliamentary committee he was frequently engaged as council.
He took silk in 1874 and shortly afterwards became a bencher of his inn, Lincoln’s Inn.
He was recently elected master of the library and was next in rotation for the offices of
Treasurer in 1897. For several years he had been one of the leading council at the parliamentary bar and his name had been prominent in all the struggles between the water companies and the London City County Council. In nearly all the important opposed bills he acted either on behalf of the promoters or for some of the opponents and in particular represented the interests of the Midland Railway, the London Brighton and South Coast Railway Company, the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, the Butte Docks Company, the North British Railway Company and a large number of water companies. The extraordinary calculating powers of the father were inherited in a large degree by the son who, it is said, could mentally multiply fifteen figures by fifteen figures and perform with apparent ease many similar feats. He has also been very successful as a cryptographer and published some years ago in one of the monthly magazines what is perhaps the only attempt at scientific method of analysis of ciphers. Mr Bidder was chairman of the Danish Gas Company, the Cannock Chase Colliery Company and the Sydney Harbour Colleries Company as well as being a director of the Rock Life Assurance Company and the West Lancashire Railway Company. In 1878 the deceased permanently took up his residence at Ravensbury Park of which he was the owner, yet having been acquired by his father the late Mr GP Bidder, CE. Mr Bidder’s residence in Mitcham was distinguished by an active and zealous interest in local affairs and the service he has rendered to the locality has been of almost incalculable advantage. Many years ago when the Brighton Railway Company promoted a bill in parliament for the purposes of obtaining powers to enable it to take a considerable part of Mitcham Common, Mr Bidder gave his services as counsel to the inhabitants
gratuitously to resist the application and worked so well for the cause that he had taken
up that the application was refused. After that, in conjunction with other gentlemen,
he spent a large sum of money in defending the rights of the Commoners against the attempted enclosure of common land at Bennington Corner in the well-known action of Bidder and Bridges, but in that case unsuccessfully. He was also prominent in other agitations connected with the Common and when the scheme for placing it under a Conservancy Board was propounded, was one of its strongest supporters. After public inquiry and in the face of much interested opposition, the Board of Agriculture approved of the formation of a Conservancy Board and Mr Bidder was unanimously elected the first chairman, a position he was peculiarly qualified to fill. With characteristic energy and zest he entered into a scheme for improving the Common and though his efforts have not always met with the appreciation they deserved at the hands of the people of Mitcham, no one who can remember what the Common was a dozen years ago and compare it
with its present state will deny that the work of the conservators has been attended with good
results. He, in conjunction with Mr A. H. Smee MRCS and others, successfully resisted attempts
to get the sanction of Parliament to schemes for extracting water from the Wandle by means
of waterworks and amongst his other appearances, in protection of the interests of the parish, may be mentioned his opposition to the scheme to place a huge cemetery just on the borders of the parish at Rosehill Sutton, which would have involved a constant stream of funerals through the parish and the strenuous opposition he manifested to the proposals of the Carshalton local board to obtain a site for their sewage out for works in Mitcham parish.
We’ve obviously obtained a lease of Mitcham Green in order that it might be preserved and regulated for purposes of recreation and the public advantage which has accrued can only be estimated by those who live in Mitcham. It has enabled cricketers of all classes to enjoy the national pastimes without less or hindrance. The policy which was pursued there was extended so soon as the larger area of the Commons could be dealt with. For many years Mr Bidder filled the office of church warden at the parish church of Mitchell and it was during this period that the beautiful east window, said to be the most beautiful in the country, towards the cost of which he distributed largely, was put up. Mr Bidder was also a trustee of Tate’s Alm Houses and at one time represented the parish upon the late Croydon Rural Sanitary Authority. He was a Master of Arts, fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and an associate member of the Institute of Civil Engineers and an associate of the Institute of Surveyors. Mr Bidder has for many years held the commission of peace for the county and on the formation of the county council at once offered his services to his neighbours to represent them on that body. One paragraph in his address in 1888 is worth quoting now. He said one matter of local interest would at the proper time have my special attention vis the securing to our district more adequate representation having regard to its population and importance. You are perhaps aware at the recent meeting of the magistrates that quarter sessions I did my best to obtain the rectification of what appears to me to be the injustice which at present we suffer under from having only one representative allotted to us. I should strive before the next election to obtain a reappointment of representatives which would place us on a more equal footing with other parts of the county. Mr Bidder was elected by a majority of 150 over another old resident now for some years dead and that he did not forget his promise in that the records of the council will testify. Indeed this question of the unjust representation of suburban Surrey on the council was one of the points upon which he felt very strongly and more than once he referred to it and sought but in vain to persuade his colleagues to consent to a rearrangement. When the question of the future meeting place of the council came to be discussed he was perhaps the strongest advocate of the council chamber remaining in London. Holding as experience has since proved that there will be more difficulty in getting all the members to attend committee and council meetings if they were held in the country than there would be if held close to the terminal of the great railway companies and so easily getatable from all parts of the county. At the second election of the council in 1892 Mr Bidder was opposed by Mr George Parker, a socialist. The inhabitants showed their
appreciation of the difference between the merits of the two men by giving Mr Parker three votes and returning their old member with a majority of over 600. At the last election in 1895 Mr Bidder was returned unopposed. On the formation of the parish councils the deceased manifested much interest in the movement and besides attending public meetings where the matter was discussed became a candidate for a seat on the first council and being elected was asked by his colleagues to accept the position of chairman which he did and by his legal knowledge helped him to help to steer them safely and quickly through the difficulties inseparable from the establishment of a new body such as that. Prior to 1892 Mr Bidder had been regarded as a strong liberal but like many other good men he could not accept the home rule programme and at the time and at the general election of 1892 with other liberal unions in the division issued a circular calling upon his neighbours to support the conservative candidate Mr Bonsor and so to defeat the schemes of those who were anxious to bring about the separation of Great Britain and Ireland.

D-Day Mulberry Harbour pontoons were made in south London

They Planned Mulberry Ports

Shuttles made at workshops in Mitcham.

D-Day Landing Prepared by Messrs. Wates.

Historic experiments hastened peace.

The achievement of the famous Mulberry Ports which enabled D-Day to hasten the day of Victory and Peace, was a local job.

Months of experimenting and planning in the Norbury office Messrs. Wates, Ltd., were followed by more months of construction at special workshops at Mitcham and Balham. Later, men from Streatham – one of them bombed-out from his home – went to Southampton and other dock areas for further construction.

At Mitcham and Balham hundreds of local men worked at high pressure making the mooring buoys for the docks, or “shuttles,” as they were termed.

A considerable portion of the floating port, Mulberry Harbour, was built by South Londoners.

To the men whose hands forged the dock in Mitcham, Balham and South India Docks, and to those whose energies were engaged for months on the gigantic task of planning the work at a Norbury office, the towing of the harbour across the Channel to the Normandy coast was tangible proof of a job well done.

Behind this feat of British engineering, which enabled Allied soldiers to force a way into the European Fortress, lies a story of hard work and of energy of hundreds co-ordinated to the mastery of a formidable task.

The story of the part South London played in the building of the harbour began in 1942, when Messrs. Wates, Ltd., builders and contractors of Norbury, were asked to experiment on ways of landing vehicles and equipment on the long flat sloping beaches inaccessible to ships.

Experimental work started, and when the Prime Minister met President Roosevelt in Ottawa in 1943 he carried with him a film showing the detail of a pier made of flexible steel spans supported on reinforced concrete pontoons. At Ottawa it was agreed that the floating pier should be the basis of the invasion port.

Then came instructions from Mr Churchill for the building of ten miles of pier and five miles of breakwater. “Don’t argue the matter,” he said, “The difficulties will argue for themselves.”

Wates were asked to construct 450 concrete pontoons to carry the flexible steel spans on which a road to carry transport from the ships was later laid. They were also asked for 500 shuttles, or mooring buoys, to steady the pontoons and for 12 bridgehead pontoons.

PROBLEMS OVERCOME

The construction of the pontoons presented many problems. They had to be light, but strong enough if aground to support the steel spans plus the weight of tanks and heavy traffic, and that they could be towed broadside as well as bows on.

For the employees of Wates there came months of unremitting hard work. Mr J. Heath, who has been bombed out from Moyser-road, Streatham, was at Southampton for about a year supervising the construction of 12 pier head pontoons. With him went Foreman B.A. Prescott of Norwood, Mr A. Bird of Tooting, George Payne, of Mitcham and Arthur Watts of Brixton, whose final job before the port was towed out to sea was to instruct Army officers and N.C.O.s on how to repair the pontoons. Mr Heath saw the port assembled, and on D-Day he saw it towed out to sea and disappear over the horizon.

“It was a fine sight and a daring enterprise,” he said. “Tests had been carried out on sections of the harbour, but it had not been possible to have a full dress rehearsal, the job was too big.”

To Mr C.D. Mitchell of New Malden, public works manager, fell the onerous task of supervising and planning all the jobs with which the firm was entrusted. He, perhaps, carried the greatest responsibility of all those working in South London.

Then there was Mr L.R. Seaton, Lamberhurst-road, streatham who for 18 months was in charge at the West India Docks, and Mr Morgan, who supervised the construction of the beetles or pontoons.

BALHAM WORKSHOP

At Balham a workshop was hastily setup to make the wooden shuttles, or mooring buoys, and hundreds of local men were taken on for three months’ intensive work.

Those at the Mitcham workshops also worked at high pressure on the shuttles. Mr J. Jacobs of Ewell toured England to buy the right kind of timber needed for the shuttles, Mr C.A. Webb, of New Malden, organised the transport of the completed shuttles to the coast and Mr Bob Whittaker was in charge of the constructional work.

In the workshops men worked 12 hours every day of the week.

The first shuttle was made by Mr Arthur Hyland, Park-road, South Norwood. From his model all the other shuttles were constructed, and then men got to work, slowly at first, but as practice increased their skill the shuttles came off the jigs ever more rapidly until the time taken for making one shuttle reduced from two weeks to two days.

In the winter of 1944 the night workers, among them Frank Bull of Brixton, carried on during the raids while shrapnel from our own guns pierced the roof of the workshop and fell around them.

The only ship’s carpenter among the men was Arthur Orieux of Mauritius, who served in the Navy in the last war.

“By the end of the time we were six weeks ahead of schedule, and were sending shuttles down to the coast so fast that the men there could not assemble them all. So we started assembling them ourselves, and were still ahead of time,” he said.

This remarkable photograph shows the shuttles or mooring buoys which formed a vital part of the famous Mulberry Ports which enable the British Forces successfully to land on the Continent on D-Day and so seal the doom of Hitler and his Nazi Germany.

Arthur had a Sea Job again

On the left Arthur Cole, and next to him, Frank Ford King.

Boats, the feel of the good hard wood that makes them and the curve of the prow are things that stir the blood of Arthur Cole, of Abbott-road, Wimbledon. Once Arthur was a sailor. He joined the Navy in 1904 and for 23 years sailed the seas calling at the great ports of the world, dodging U-boats in the last war and taking part in the Battle of Jutland.

But even though the sea has become a part of them there comes a time when a sailor must leave the sea. Arthur’s first job ashore was making artificial limbs, a job that lasted ten years. It was not that the sea had lost its power over him. He built boats in his spare time, not show pieces, but models to please the heart of a sailor, that would sail before and against the wind. He wanted to build boats for a livelihood, and called on every boat builder on the Thames from Putney to the sea. But Arthur was not a boat builder, they would not start him.

Then he did bomb repair work until at last he went to the Labour Exchange.

“They’ll take you at Wates,” they told him.

“What do they do there?” he asked.

“Coracle building,” was the reply, and Arthur went to work, and was happy. When the order for shuttles came along he and Frank Ford-King were chosen to learn every job required in the building of them, and in a week the two of them taught 45 men their jobs.

Arthur and Frank were key men. If any man was ill they were there to take over any task. Arthur was satisfied and could not work hard enough.

On one occasion determined to complete a shuttle before he went home, he did an operation for which 11 hours was allowed in half an hour.

Biographies

Arthur Cole

Arthur Cole was born in 1895, and during the war he was living in 58 Abbot Avenue, Wimbledon, with his wife Emily. He had joined the Navy when he was 12. He passed away in 1969, aged 78.

Arthur Orieux

Arthur Peter Orieux was born in Mauritius in 1887. While working at Wates he was living at 9 Moreton House, Garratt Lane, with his wife Alice. He was awarded Campaign Medals for World War I Merchant Seamen. He passed away 11th March 1951, aged 63.

Mitcham History Notes

Some notes about history of Mitcham, Surrey