Emma Walmsley
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Research by Liz Bickerstaffe
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Emma Walmsley, a genteel and cultured lady from a wealthy and influential family, was a generous donor to the Lytham St Annes Art Collection. She was born in Blackpool in 1879, the eldest daughter of Thirza Eva and George Walmsley, a second generation cotton manufacturer in Burnley. (1)
The successful business was founded by Emma’s grandfather, John Walmsley, who progressed from being a labourer at a printworks to a draper and then a cotton manufacturer, employing 122 males and 125 females within 20 years. (2) By 1891 John Walmsley & Sons were operating over 1,700 looms at Hargher Clough Shed in Burnley, with offices in Manchester, and another 670 looms in the Holme and Vale Mills of Darwen. (3) Emma’s father worked in the family business until the partnership was dissolved and he established his own manufacturing company, George Walmsley & Sons, at Peel Mill, which he had built on Gannow Lane in Burnley, again with offices in Manchester. Emma’s two brothers, John Frank and Leonard Peel Walmsley, were co-directors, operating over 2,000 looms. (4) The success of the business enabled two of Emma’s younger sisters, Eva and Mabel, to be educated at Cheltenham Ladies College and it is highly likely that she too was privately educated. (5) Possibly their education extended to overseas travel and they certainly moved in influential circles. In 1901 Emma and her two eldest siblings were guests at the Lancaster home of Thomas Purvis Ritzema, founder of the Northern Daily Telegraph (now Lancashire Telegraph), the first evening newspaper in East Lancashire, published in Blackburn. (6) George Walmsley was a county magistrate, a Freemason and churchman as well as a generous supporter of many local societies and philanthropic institutions. (7) When Emma’s mother, Thirza, died in 1908 at the age of 55, George moved the family to St Annes, residing at East Court on Links Gate. (8) The coastline would have been very familiar to them since Emma’s grandmother, Jane Peel, had run a lodging house in Blackpool for many years after being widowed in Burnley. (9) Thirza had been raised in Blackpool and married George Walmsley on the Fylde in 1875. (10) The Walmsley family home was in Habergham Eaves. Whilst her two brothers ran the manufacturing business in Burnley, Emma helped her father to run the household in St Annes. He was a magistrate, sitting regularly at the courts in the Kirkham division, but did not enjoy good health in his later years. When he died in 1918, aged 66, following complications after an operation for appendicitis, he left a fortune of £99,000, equivalent to over £6 million today, appointing Emma and her elder brother as executors. (11) Emma built a new life for herself. ‘She was deeply interested in St Annes Sick Aid and Nursing Society over a very long period. In 1921 she became Hon Treasurer, holding office for many years and from 1937 to 1943 she was President.’ (12) She appears to have been a lady of strength and character, being the family member to give evidence at her younger brother’s inquest in 1924 when he was knocked over by a car in Manchester; she explained that he had been gassed in the war and had suffered temporary blindness and so had probably been affected by the bright car lights. (13) Emma remained close to her remaining four siblings, who kept homes in St Annes and Burnley, particularly her younger sister, Eva, who was her executor when she died on 11 October 1945, aged 66. Her final home was 373 Clifton Drive, St Annes, although she died at Sunny Bank Medical Home, 321 Clifton Drive. (14) She was cremated at Carleton cemetery, leaving over £39,000 in her Will, the equivalent of £1.6 million today, and was mourned by ‘many friends and old residents of St Annes’. (16) |
REFERENCES
(1) 1881 census, Ancestry (2) 1851, 1861 & 1871 census returns, Ancestry (3) Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History,1891 (4) Skinner’s Cotton Directory, 1923 (5) 1901 census, Ancestry, for Eva & Mabel (6) 1901 census, Ancestry (7) Lytham St Annes Express, 1 February 1918, Obituary of George Walmsley (8) Burnley Cemetery Records, 1911 census, Ancestry (9) 1851, 1861 & 1871 census returns, Ancestry (10) Free BMD Marriage Index, Ancestry (11) National Probate Calendar, Ancestry, Historic Inflation Calculator www.thisismoney.co.uk (12) Lytham St Annes Express, 19 October 1945, p8, Obituary (13) Burnley Express, 23 April 1923 (14) National Probate Calendar, Ancestry (15) Lytham St Annes Express, 19 October 1945, Obituary Proof engravings : 1 Going to the Mill (Pratt) 2 Rhyl Sands (Pratt) 3 Hayfield on a Breezy Day (Pratt) 4 Crossing the Stream (Pratt) 5 Going to the Plough (Pratt) 6 Skirts of the Forest (Pratt) 7 Where Only Seabirds Roam (Pratt) 8 Braemar (Landseer) 9 The Monarch of the Glen (Landseer) 10 The Ptarmigan Hill (Landseer) Textiles: 1 My Lady's Correspondence (unknown artist) - engraving on silk 2 Heron in Water (previously recorded as Marshlands and Trees)(unknown artist) - black & white print on silk Unlocated: Footsteps (Frederick Daniel Hardy 1827-1911) -oil + |
