The town of Bourne can be thankful to Alderman T W Atkinson for the Wellhead park and War Memorial gardens, established in the years following the Second World War of 1939-45 with money and property he bequeathed to the town.

Thomas Whyment Atkinson spent more than half a century devoted to farming and the community, as union officer and advisor, councillor, alderman and justice of the peace. He served for 52 years on Bourne Urban District Council, subsequently joining South Kesteven Rural District Council on its formation. He was also a member of Kesteven County Council from 1910, being elevated to the aldermancy in 1921, and the following year was elected to the Kesteven Standing Joint Committee.

His activities covered a wide range of interests with politics an overwhelming motivation. As a staunch Conservative, he took an active role in all general elections and was for a time vice-chairman of the Rutland and Stamford Divisional Association. He was twice asked to allow his name go forward as a Parliamentary candidate for the division, first at the general election of 1922 and secondly at the by-election caused by the death of the Conservative member, Mr Harvey Dixon. In addition, he was invited to stand for the Holland with Boston division.

Apart from his public work, his predominant interest was farming and there was little he did not know about agriculture. At one time, he farmed 3,222 acres in three counties, Rutland, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, and was a well known breeder of Lincoln red Shorthorn cattle and Lincoln Longwool sheep. He was also a keen horseman and for 40 years, while living at Greatford, was in the habit of riding around his farm each morning before breakfast. He eventually moved to Haconby Hall, near Bourne, although for some years he also maintained a second residence, Windyridge at Buxton in Derbyshire.

Alderman Atkinson was also a keen farming administrator, anxious to pass on his knowledge to others, and for four years was chairman of the Bourne branch of the National Farmers’ Union. He was also involved with fen drainage, being a member of the Black Sluice Commissions for 50 years and chairman on several occasions as well as being chairman of the Haconby Fen Drainage Board and serving on the boards for Bourne, Morton and Dunsby. In 1925, he was appointed by the Kesteven Agricultural Committee as its representative on the Council of Agriculture for England and during both world wars of the last century, from 1914-18 and 1939-45, served on the Kesteven War Agricultural Committee, being the only member to have held this distinction and he was not without military experience himself having been commissioned as a subaltern in the Volunteer Battalion, the Lincolnshire Regiment, during the Great War.

He was appointed a magistrate in October 1917, sitting on the Bourne bench, and became chairman of the justices in March 1926, an appointment he held until 1945, but only standing down then because he had reached the compulsory retiring age of 75. For many years, he was a member of the Board of Guardians at Bourne and when this body was superseded by the Public Assistance Committee, he had the distinction of being chosen as the first chairman of the new authority.

Alderman Atkinson was appointed chairman of Bourne Rural District Council in 1922-23 and was the first chairman of the newly formed South Kesteven Rural District Council. In 1927, he also became the first chairman of the Bourne and district branch of the British Legion and held office until 1941. In 1945, another distinction came his way when he became High Sheriff of Lincolnshire, an appointment he regarded as not only an honour for himself but also for Kesteven and the Bourne area particularly.

He was also a keen motorist and ironically, it was this interest that brought about his death. In 1903, he was involved in a serious accident when he was then living at Greatford Manor but farming at Haconby. A local newspaper reported on Monday 12th October that he was riding his machine towards home when he overtook a party of men with dogs at Thurlby crossroads. The report went on: "One of the dogs fouled the front wheel of his motor with the result that he came down with great violence on to the road. Bleeding and unconscious, he was taken to a neighbouring inn and surgical assistance was summoned. When Dr John Gilpin arrived, he found Mr Atkinson suffering from partial concussion of the brain."

He eventually recovered but his next serious accident near Bourne more than 50 years later proved fatal. On 6th April 1954, his car hit the grass verge and ran off the road at the junction of Mill Drove and Meadow Drove as he was on his way home for lunch and the vehicle ended upside down in a drainage dyke. A farmer, John James Dickinson, who was working in a field nearby, saw the accident and rushed to the scene where he found the driver pinned underneath the car almost covered with mud and water. He fetched his tractor and some ropes and pulled the car clear as other helpers arrived on the scene, his brother Edwin Dickinson and neighbouring farmers Harry and Richard Ash, and between them, they went down into the dyke and supported Alderman Atkinson above the water until medical assistance arrived.

Two Bourne general practitioners, Dr George Holloway and Dr Cecil Sweetnam, who arrived to give medical aid to the injured man, diagnosed his extensive injuries which included a broken thigh and a large scalp wound and he was rushed by ambulance to hospital in Peterborough where a more detailed examination revealed a comminuted fracture of the neck and severe shock. He underwent surgery but was discharged on July 1st and sent home to convalesce but never fully recovered and after suffering miocardial degeneration, died on Thursday 9th December at the age of 80. An inquest on Friday 10th December recorded a verdict of accidental death and the deputy coroner for Bourne, Mr Harry Ringrose, said: “Those at the scene did everything they possibly could and I would like to thank these gentlemen on behalf of the public for the manner in which they rendered that great assistance.”

The funeral was held the following Monday at Haconby village church attended by many relatives, friends, local councillors, public officials and business associates. There were no flowers by request. Alderman Atkinson had been married but his wife died in 1952 and there were no children. In his will published in April 1956, he left £124,501 [almost £2 million in today's money] and there were several bequests including property at Haconby to the trustees of Bourne United Charities to enable the Wellhead field at Bourne be developed as a park while the remainder of his estate, including Haconby Hall and Hall Farm, was left in trust to his nephew, Joseph E Atkinson and his family.

See also     The War Memorial     The Wellhead Gardens