Reminiscences of Rotherham
by G. Gummer, J.P.
« « previs there any wonder at the Rotherham and Rawmarsh Boards becoming notorious throughout the county?
PROMINENT MEN OF FIFTY YEARS AGO
It will be interesting to many of my readers to be reminded of some of the men who were in the public eye 50 years or more ago. All of us are more or less idealists and hero worshippers in our callow youth. Being no exception to the rule, I, at one time, looked upon such men as Aldermen Neill, Kelsey, Morgan, Marsh and a few others with admiring awe. Alas! the awakening came as I gathered in the years and discovered that the great ones of the world are, in all the amenities and humanities of life, neither more nor less than ourselves. If the young desire to cherish their heroes, then they must avoid them.ALDERMAN GEO. NEILL, J.P.
Looking back on the municipal life of Rotherham, no man looms more prominently in my mind than Ald. Geo. Neill. A distinguished writer has said: Unquestionably the greatest thing that can be said of man is that he had no father, that he sprang from nothing and made himself; that he was born mud and died marble George Neill, of humble parentage, came to Rotherham a poor man - poor and unknown. He was never ashamed of his origin; he would not unneces sarily hide it, yet he never bored one with details of his early days. His life amongst us was one of activity for the well-being of others, culminating in his being appointed to the position of Mayor in 1881, an honour which was again conferred upon him in 1884, again in 1890, and again in 1896 and 1897. His excellence was not of the unobtrusive kind; rather he made it known, being a firm believer in the axiom: Order is heaven’s first law, and this confes’t, Some are, and must be, greater than the rest.
It is said that Benjamin West, who was born in humble circumstances, had, when young, very high notions as to the position which he believed he would one day occupy. Having to go on horse-back with a schoolmate to a neighbouring town, the boy said, 'Here’s the horse, come and get up behind me', 'Behind you', said Benjamin, 'I will ride behind nobody', 'Oh, very well', said the other, 'then I will ride behind you, so mount'. So it was with AId. Geo. Neill. He would ride behind no body. He must be first, otherwise he became petulant and awkward to deal with.
However, I look upon him as one of, if not, the best of our public men. A Scotsman by birth - although his many personal friends always persisted in labelling him 'a Belfast Scotsman' - he inherited to a great degree a Scotman’s fighting instincts, and was what I may describe as on top form, when, as he frequently boasted, 'he got the chance of wiping the floor with his opponents'. He was fluent, used the personal pronoun liberally, and was somewhat fond of adjectives. Many of his sayings became by-words in municipal circles. The terms 'maudlin sentiment' and 'hurl back with withering scorn' were stock phrases with him. When indignant he was extremely vehement. He had great faith in invective and denunciation to refute statements of his opponents. The early days of his municipal career can be best described as turbulent. An unsuccessful candidate when the town was incorporated, he succeeded in his next attempt, only to lose his seat in 1875, being beaten by Mr. Benj. Sorsby in the North Ward. The following year he again sought election and met with success, retaining his seat as a councillor until 1880, when he ascended to the aldermanic bench, in the year 1879 he opposed the nomination of Alder man Harrison for the position of Mayor. Saturated with ambition, it had for some time been common knowledge that his aspirations lay in this direction. During a contest in the ward he represented, so pronounced were his activities to secure his ends that his opponents issued a cartoon depicting the mayoral chair next »
prev « «