ONE OF THE LEADING members of the community in past times was the landlord of the Nag’s Head and the first chairman of Bourne Urban District Council which was formed in 1899. He made an immense contribution to the town but he was not a man without fault because during the Great War of 1914-18 he was found guilty of dodging the rationing restrictions imposed over the supply of meat. 

John Baxter Shilcock came from a successful family which rose to prominence during the 19th century after his father, Robert Shilcock, had moved to Bourne from Helpringham, near Sleaford, to start his own business and had soon established a successful career in milling and brewing.  

By 1876, he was owner of the Star Brewery supplying many local public houses with their ale and had begun to take a major part in the life of the town as a member of many organisations such as the New Association for the Prosecution of Felons, a position he held for 40 years until the time of his death in 1908 at the age of 85. 

John was born in 1850 when his father was already a successful businessman and chose a career in the licensed trade. In 1872, he married Alice Thornton whose parents kept the Nag's Head in what was then the Market Place and when her father died, Alice's widowed mother, Mrs Maria Thornton, ran the pub for a while with her son Thomas and daughter Martha until John and his wife took over the tenancy about 1895.  

It proved to be an astute move for both of them because he was to preside as mine host for a quarter of a century, becoming not only a model landlord who increased custom dramatically but also specialising in outside catering and there were few social occasions in Bourne for which he did not provide the food and drink. At that time, the Nag’s Head was also the meeting place for many of the town’s businesses, sporting and social organisations which brought in added custom and prestige.
 

Much of his time was now being taken up with his two consuming passions, the church and local affairs. His father had been a long-serving churchwarden of the Abbey Church and when he retired, John was nominated as his successor but there were other candidates and when he won the subsequent vote at the vestry meeting, a poll of the parish was taken and he won by a large majority. The office of people's churchwarden was a prestigious one at that time and much sought after and it also carried with it a trusteeship of what is now Bourne United Charities. 

His interest in local affairs prompted him to stand for election to the first parish council ever formed in Bourne following the Local Government Act of 1894, coming second in the polls, and when Bourne Urban District Council was formed in 1899 he became one of its first members and its very first chairman.  

Like his father, he was also for many years a member of the town's New Association for the Prosecution of Felons and was its vice-chairman for twenty years, as well as being secretary of the Whit Monday Sports and Horse Show, the Fatstock Show Society and the Foal Show Society while also maintaining a keen interest in sport and was for many years the regular umpire for Bourne Town Cricket Club. Politically, he was Conservative but held democratic views on many subjects and was frequently outspoken on public matters.  

But he was best known in the town as the landlord of the Nag's Head which he and his wife Alice kept for 25 years. They had six daughters, all renowned for their good looks and keenly sought by suitors. All had successful marriages, notably Annie, who became Mrs Thomas Mays and mother to Raymond who was later to become famous as the international racing car driver and designer. 

It was during his time as landlord of the Nag's Head that John Shilcock fell foul of the wartime rationing restrictions which lead to his appearance before the magistrates in the police court at the town hall on Thursday 26th September 1918 when he was summoned for three breaches of the regulations. The case was brought by the Bourne Urban Food Control Committee and he pleaded not guilty on all counts.  

The court was told that Shilcock was a licensed caterer and received from the Food Control Committee a permit to purchase 28 lbs. of meat each fortnight for which he had to make a return, accompanied by coupons taken from the customers who had been supplied, but in the cases before the court, the numbers surrendered were short of the requisite amounts.  

Shilcock told the bench that the coupons in question had been taken by one of the servants in the house and placed on one side. It was impossible for him always to be looking after the servants and that no doubt accounted for some of the missing coupons at a time when he had also been handicapped by his wife's illness and some of the meat purchased for catering had been used by him for beef tea for his wife under the doctor's certificate.  

The chairman of the magistrates, Edward Smith, said that this was the first case of its kind that had been before the court but it should be clearly understood that the rationing orders must be carried out. Shilcock was fined 5s. on each of the three summonses and ordered to pay £1 1s. costs. 

The couple retired from the Nag's Head in 1920 and went to live in North Road where John died on 14th June 1927, aged 77. His wife Alice survived him by ten years and died on 9th October 1937, aged 84, and they are buried in the same grave in the town cemetery. His legacy was that of a man who served the town with distinction and for that perhaps his one lapse from grace may be forgiven.