Horace Stanton

Photograph courtesy Robert Stanton

Horace

Stanton

1897-1977

One of the most influential people in Bourne during the mid-20th century was Horace Stanton who held several important public appointments in the town and also commanded the Home Guard during the Second World War.

Horace Mills Alderson Stanton was born on 23rd October 1897, the second son of William Edwin Stanton, a doctor, of Stamford Road, Market Deeping, and educated at the Barton School, Wisbech, leaving to become a trainee with a firm of solicitors in Peterborough. His studies were interrupted by the Great War of 1914-18 when he was commissioned in the Royal Field Artillery and subsequently served in India and Persia, attaining the rank of lieutenant but after leaving the army, returned to his legal studies and qualified as a solicitor in July 1921.

He joined the law practice of his father-in-law, Mr Stephen Andrews, with chambers at No 11 North Street [now Andrews, Stanton & Ringrose] and when Mr Andrews died in 1925, he took over the practice and assumed many of his public appointments including clerkships to the town's magistrates, the Association for the Prosecution of Felons, Bourne United Charities, the governors of Bourne Grammar School, four internal drainage boards and the Trustees and Steward of the Manor of Bourne Abbots. He was also district coroner for 22 years and although he retired from his law practice in November 1959, he held this post until March 1963, together with many of his other appointments until finally relinquishing the last in 1974.

At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, he took charge of the Civil Defence report centre in Bourne and then on its formation, he became second in command of the 4th Bourne and Stamford Battalion of the Home Guard but when the battalion commander retired because of ill health, he succeeded him in February 1941 when the unit became the 4th Kesteven Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment and he remained in command until the unit stood down in December 1944. During the war, he also served as secretary of the Kesteven War Agricultural Executive Committee for the Bourne area.

Mr Stanton married a childhood friend, Dorothy Larken Andrews, daughter of Bourne solicitor Stephen Andrews, at the Abbey Church on 26th June 1923 and for most of their married life they lived in a substantial William and Mary period home at No 20 North Road where the grounds contained the largest weeping ash in England. The house was demolished in 1990 to make way for a new housing development known as Maple Gardens.

No 20 North Road, home of Horace Stanton and his family. The stately William and Mary period stone mansion was demolished in 1990 to make way for the present Maple Gardens housing development.

Fifty years after their wedding, the couple celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary with a party at their home for 70 guests that included seven members of the original congregation.

Both were keen tennis players and Mr Stanton also played football for Bourne Town Football Club in a soccer career that lasted for more than 30 years. Mrs Stanton also took a keen interest in local affairs, serving as a governor of Bourne Grammar School for 32 years, a trustee of Bourne United Charities and she also worked with the Red Cross during the Second World War.

It was his clerkship to the local charities that gave him the utmost pleasure and interest and it was on his advice that the trustees acquired the Abbey Lawn playing fields which he designed himself and where a plaque was unveiled by his daughter Jane in 1970, the open air swimming pool, the War Memorial and Wellhead Gardens in South Street and the Red Hall, and he spared no effort in helping raise money for these causes. He and his wife were particularly devoted to the preservation of the Red Hall at a time when the future of the 17th century mansion was uncertain and they made substantial donations in 1963 towards the cost of restoration, particularly the long gallery and the adjoining rooms where a plaque remembers their generosity:

This gallery was restored by Mr and Mrs H M A Stanton in memory of Mrs Stanton's mother and father. The late Mr and Mrs S R Andrews, Mr Andrews having been for many years Clerk to the Trustees, and having in his lifetime been mainly responsible in developing the Leytonstone Estate from which the Charities derive most of its income, and Mrs Andrews having been a trustee for 25 years.

His other activities reflected a very busy public life for he was at various times secretary of the local Boy Scouts' Association, the parochial church council and he also served as a churchwarden. He was a past president of the Lincolnshire Law Society and the local branch of the Trustee Savings Bank, a past master of the Hereward Lodge of Freemasons, member of Bourne Probus Club, founder member of the Bourne branch of the Royal British Legion and at the time of his death was president of the Witham-on-the-Hill Cricket Club and the Bourne Abbey Tennis Club.

Ph otographed in 1920

A photograph of Horace Stanton in 1920 (left) which he sent to an old army friend in New Zealand and signed with his service nickname "The Boy". The picture on the right was taken on 9th November 1968 on the occasion of the centenary meeting of the Hereward Lodge of Freemasons of which he was master that year.

Photographed in 1968

It was also Mr Stanton who encouraged J D Birkbeck, a teacher at Bourne Grammar School, to write A History of Bourne, a studious book detailing the development of Bourne since early times. "It was his suggestion and he gave me access to various documents, including the records of the Manor of Bourne Abbots", he recalled later. "Starting with these, I then researched more widely and from numerous local sources and although there is much more that I could have done, I felt that in fairness to Mr Stanton I ought not let the project run on for years and so the book was published in 1970."

Horace and Dorothy Stanton had two children, a daughter Jane, now Mrs Kenneth Marshall of Horsham, Sussex, and a son, Mr Robert Stanton of Witham-on-the-Hill. One of their five grandchildren, Roger Marshall, played cricket for Sussex.

He was also a substantial landowner at Witham-on-the-Hill after inheriting a number of tenanted properties in the will of Thomas Atkinson who died in 1955. He sold Warren Farm and put Home Farm in trust for his wife and grandchildren for 90 years and also transferred Lings Farm to his son Robert who still lives there.

Mr Stanton died on Monday 18th April 1977 at the age of 79. The funeral was held the following week when the Abbey Church was packed for the service and the congregation included family mourners, former clients and business associates and representatives of the many organisations with which he had been connected. The service was conducted by the vicar, the Rev Gordon Lanham but clergy from other denominations were also present including the Rev E C Long, Vicar of Thurlby, the Rev David Davies, Rector of Market Deeping, the Rev D V Brown, curate at the Abbey Church, the Rev M Collonge, Methodist minister and Father P J Peppard of Bourne Roman Catholic Church.

In his address, the vicar said that Mr Stanton had learned the lesson of service. He had served his country, his profession, the church and the community for nearly 60 years. He recalled the epitaph of Sir Christopher Wren in the words of his son that are inscribed over the north door of St Paul's Cathedral in London which he designed: "If you would see his monument look around" and added:

"How true that was of Horace Stanton. The provision of the Memorial Gardens on one side of the church and the Abbey Lawn on the other, with all of its facilities for recreation and pleasure, was due to his foresight so that we and all others who come after us can have the benefit of them. And so we remember him with respect."

Among those organisations represented at the church were the local bench of magistrates, the Town Council, the Hereward Lodge of Freemasons, Bourne and Market Deeping branches of the Royal British Legion, Stamford Police, Bourne United Charities, Bourne Grammar and Primary Schools, the Probus Club, the Men's Hockey Club, Cricket Club and the Abbey Tennis Club, the cricket club and parish council from Witham-on-the-Hill, the Black Sluice Drainage Board, Darby and Joan Club, Trustee Savings Bank, Chamber of Trade, Divisional Conservative Association, Friends of Bourne Hospital and the Methodist Church.

Mr Stanton was cremated afterwards at Marholm crematorium, Peterborough, and his ashes were scattered over the Abbey Lawn, the opening of which he regarded as one of the high points of his public service. His wife survived him until 7th March 1989 when she died at the old people's residential home at Braceborough at the age of 88. She is buried in the town cemetery in the same grave as her father Stephen Robert Andrews (1857-1925) and her mother Jane (died 18th September 1941).

THE HORACE STANTON MEMORIAL GARDEN

The work that Horace Stanton did for the town was recognised in 1983, six years after his death, when a memorial garden was built on the edge of the Abbey Lawn near the main entrance. It consisted of a paved area with shrubs and a seat and was built by pupils of Bourne Secondary School as part of a Project Respond scheme sponsored by the National Westminster Bank in which schools were given financial help to carry out community projects. Mr Stanton was chosen for the memorial because of his continuing work for the town during his lifetime and particularly his clerkship to the trustees of Bourne United Charities who owned and administered the Abbey Lawn for 38 years from 1929-67.
The opening of the garden was marked with a ceremony on 20th July 1983 when it was handed over to the chairman of the trustees, Councillor John Smith, by the chairman of the school governors, Mrs Aimee Burchnell. In her speech, she acknowledged the help that had been given by the community project and the Bourne United Charities for their generosity in providing the land. The picture of the ceremony above shows Councillor Smith (seated) with Horace Stanton's widow, Mrs Dorothy Stanton (left) and Mrs Burchnell (right). Others standing behind are (from the left) Mr A Turner of the National Westminster Bank in Bourne, Councillor Don Fisher, Mayor of Bourne and also a trustee, Mr L H Decamp, headmaster of Bourne Secondary School and Mr L P Wilson, deputy headmaster, together with pupils and staff who assisted with the work.
The garden was not well kept in the years that have followed and was frequently used as a shortcut by walkers and children with their cycles. There was no plaque there either to record its dedication.
Unfortunately, the garden disappeared in the summer of 2009 during a refurbishment programme at the Abbey Lawn by the Bourne Green Gym, a voluntary group of helpers dedicated to recovering from illness through activity. The project, which was endorsed by Bourne United Charities, was wrongly described as the former Salvation Army garden but the area involved was in fact the memorial garden, by then totally neglected and overgrown, and the paving slabs were ripped up and dumped, the shrubs replaced and much of the garden re-seeded with grass. The mistake passed unnoticed, mainly because of the absence of a plaque, although it was surprising that none of the trustees remembered despite the fact that Councillors Smith and Fisher were still sitting on the board of trustees.