Percy Asher (1900-1966)

BORN in Rutland Street, the son of a railway porter, Percy attended St Anne’s and Boy’s Central schools.

He left school at the age of 14 and worked in Hornsby’s offices until 1926 when, after attending a number of WEA courses, he undertook a three-year degree course in economics at University College, Nottingham.

At the end of the course he took the London University Bachelor of Science (Economics) Degree examination which he passed with 1st Class Honours.

He also received the Gladstone Prize for being the student who came top of the list in the exam.

He was then awarded a bursary for three years to carry out research at Cambridge University after which he was awarded a Master of Science Degree in Economics.

Between 1934 and 1942 he held various academic posts including a year lecturing at University College, London in Economics, covering for Hugh Gaitskell the future leader of the Labour Party.

In 1938 he wrote a book on “National Self-Sufficiency” which sold over 10,000 copies.

After the Second World War he joined the Civil Service working for the Air Ministry, where he remained until he retired in 1965.

He died the following year.

Compiled by Malcolm Baxter

Agnes Audus (1911-1999) 

AGNES Audus moved to Grantham from Yorkshire with her husband Leonard in 1942 when he was appointed secretary and general manager of Grantham Co-operative Society.

They soon became well established in the town.  When Agnes and Leonard became Mayor and Mayoress in 1954, Agnes was approached to form a fund raising committee for the Waif’s and Stray’s now known as the Children’s Society.

Agnes held this post for over 40 years and the local committee raised thousands of pounds for the charity.

During her life time she was instrumental in forming the Flower Club and Manthorpe Women’s Institute which was also a lifelong commitment for her.

Agnes volunteered with the WRVS delivering meals on wheels and before Sandon School was built she also helped with the children with special needs giving respite care for parents at a time when there was very little in the way of help.

She worked tirelessly for the various organisations she was involved with until a few months before her death.

She was a very charismatic character and had a way of getting things done in the town.

 Leonard Audus (1908-2004)

YORKSHIREMAN Leonard Audus left school aged 12 for a job at the Co-op, an organisation he devoted his working life to.

He studied at night school and aged 20 passed the Certificate of Grocers with an outstanding mark, which won him a five week trip to Canada.

He was appointed manager of the Central branch in Skelmersdale, when he married his childhood sweetheart Agnes.

He moved to Grantham in 1942 as secretary and general manager of Grantham Co-operative Society, where he remained until retirement in 1971.

He won his first Grantham Borough Council election in 1945 and became an alderman six years later, which caused controversy which reverberated as far as Downing Street nearly half-a-century later.

His appointment meant Ald Alfred Roberts, a member for 27 years, failed to gain the support of fellow councillors for re-election to the aldermanic bench.

It had been expected to be a foregone conclusion.

It still rankled with his daughter, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and when it was mention on a TV interview, she was reduced to tears.

He was Mayor in 1955-56 and for many years was chairman of the Grantham Magistrates Bench.

In 1973 he received an OBE for his services to local government. He was the town’s last surviving alderman.

A block of flats on London Road is named after him.

Annie Ayscough (1868-1945)

MARY Ann Ayscough was born near Caistor before her family moved to Great Grimsby.

Her father drowned when his ship the Robert & Charlotte, went down with all hands off the Northumberland coast.

She married tailor Thomas Garnham when only 16, and as a dressmaker, made the collars for his suits until he provided her with her own dressmaking shop in Fylde Street, Great Grimsby.

She had four sons by Thomas until his premature death. She then took in lodgers, George & Will Pougher.

She married George, eight years her junior at his home town, Tadcaster.

Then in 1907 George won the Daily Mail Farm, on a 14-acre site at Little Ponton, near Grantham, which the newspaper had offered in a competition.

She helped George run the farm for three years until he died of a brain tumour.

She tried to continue the farm with three of her sons although by now had three daughters by George. Unfortunately it proved too much and she was forced to give it up.

She sold up and took over a boarding house in Commercial Road, playing host to many celebrities of the day who were appearing at the Empire Theatre/Theatre Royal in George Street. They included Will Hay and Elroy the Legless Wonder.

Her daughters helped run the boarding house by day and were usherettes at the Picture House by night.

She retired to a flat in High Street, over Shepherd’s tailoring which had been vacated by Dr Charles Eaton and later moved to a small terraced house in Redcross Street,  spending her final days there.

 

Hannah Ayscough (1623-1679)

HANNAH Ayscough is best known as the mother of Sir Isaac Newton. She was born in Market Overton in Rutland to James Ayscough and his wife Margery Blythe. Hannah married farmer Isaac Newton, the elder, in April 1642 and moved to Woolsthorpe Manor, near Colsterworth. He died in October 1642, and nearly three months later their only child Isaac Newton was born.
Hannah left young Isaac in the care of her parents, when he was three years old.
At that time she moved to North Witham to marry the vicar Barnabas Smith. She and Rev Smith had three children: Mary, Benjamin, and Hannah. Isaac resented his stepfather and once threatened to burn the house Barnabas and the family lived in with them in it.
When Rev Smith died aged 70 in 1653, Hannah returned to Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, by which time Isaac was 10 years old, and returned to his mother’s household.
As his father had been a farmer, Hannah decided in 1659 that Isaac should also be a farmer, and thus took him away from his school studies.

He spent a year away from school on the farm, at quite a critical time in his education.
Isaac went back to school in autumn 1660.

Later in his life, at the age of nineteen, Isaac grew very resentful of how his mother had left him when he was young.

Hannah’s brother William, unlike her, saw the abilities that her son had and was instrumental in Isaac’s attending of Trinity College in June 1661.

Hannah seemed to be more interested in her farm than in Isaac’s academic achievements.

She died in Stamford, Lincolnshire, when Isaac was 36.

She was buried at Colsterworth on June 4, 1679 by her son, who buried her next to his father. Isaac spent much of the remainder of this year in Woolsthorpe.

Albert Victor Bacon (1910-1941)

ALBERT ‘Vic’ Bacon was the son of Mr and Mrs H  Bacon, of  Elmer Street North.

Educated at the National School he entered the employment men’s outfitter P W Sheppard, High Street as errand boy.

A year later he was engaged by the Gas Company as assistant collector to the late Mr Weston, who then lived at the Hare and Hounds. East Street.

He was promoted head collector, and in the war became a member of the Gas Company’s Home Guard.

He joined the RAF in 1940 as an armourer.

Mr Bacon had been associated with the Grantham Conservative Club for 14 years and was held esteem by all its members.

He took active interest in the various games, being excellent billiards and snooker player.  In 1928 he won the club snooker challenge cup.

Mr Bacon was killed active service.

 Albert Ball (1896-1917)

King’s School old boy and WWI air ace Albert Ball, lodged in Avenue Road in the town while at school in Grantham in 1908 and 1909.

He stayed at the home of Mrs Howarth.

He became the youngest flier to win three Distinguished Service Orders and was awarded a posthumous VC for consistent bravery in 26 aerial combats.

Ball joined the Sherwood Foresters at the outbreak of the First World War and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in October 1914. He learned to fly in his spare time and gained his pilot’s licence a year later and his wings in 1916.

He joined No. 13 Squadron RFC in France, flying reconnaissance missions before being posted in May to No. 11 Squadron.

He became the first British fighter ace to capture the public’s imagination.

Ball crashed to his death in a field in France while pursuing the Red Baron’s brother, Lothar von Richthofen. During the engagement he managed to force von Richthofen to the ground, but soon after emerged from a cloud bank upside down and crashed before he could recover. The Germans buried Albert Ball in Annœullin, with full honours.

Ball’s father, a former mayor of Nottingham, bought the field where his son died, improving his gravesite in Annœullin, and building homes in his honour.

 

Patrick Bamford (b1993)

 

FOOTBALLER Patrick Bamford was born in Grantham, and joined Nottingham Forest’s Academy as an eight-year-old after playing junior football for Muskham Cougars.

He attended Nottingham High School where he did French, History, Biology and General Studies and got a good set of A-Level results.

He was an unused substitute during Forest’s League Cup Third Round tie against Newcastle United at the City Ground making his Forest debut against Cardiff City at the City Ground on 31 December 2011, coming on as a substitute.

Bamford furthered his claim to a place in the Forest side by scoring five and setting up three goals in a 9–1 victory over Wigan Athletic youth in the FA Youth Cup, and the following week scored four goals in a 5–1 win over Southampton.

In January 2012, Bamford joined Chelsea on a five-year contract for a  £1.5 million fee.

Chelsea then loaned him out to Milton Keynes Dons, Derby County, Middlesbrough with whom he won the Championship Player of the Year. He then had further loans at Crystal Palace, Norwich City and Burnley, before returning to Middlesbrough for a fee believed to be in the region of £5.5 million. He joined Leeds United on 31 July 2018 and helped the club win the EFL Championship and gain promotion to the Premier League under the management of Marcelo Bielsa.

Capped once for the Republic of Ireland at under-18 level, he later changed allegiances to England, which he represented up to under-21 level, before switching back to Ireland in 2019.

Bamford was included in Gareth Southgate’s 27-man preliminary squad for the 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, but was excluded from the final squad due to injury.[131]

In March and July 2018, Republic of Ireland – and former Grantham –  manager Martin O’Neill revealed he and assistant manager Roy Keane had been scouting Bamford, as they were looking into the possibility of calling up Bamford to the Republic of Ireland squad, should Bamford change allegiance back to the Ireland national team.

On 23 December 2018, new Republic of Ireland Manager Mick McCarthy confirmed he would be speaking to Bamford about calling him up to the national team, and on 7 March 2019 McCarthy announced that Bamford would be switching his allegiance back to Ireland

After McCarthy revealed in June 2019 that he was still waiting for Bamford to make a decision about playing for Ireland, noting how he was ‘refusing to chase’ Bamford, former Leeds and Republic of Ireland striker Robbie Keane criticised Bamford saying, “I’ll tell you with Patrick Bamford, he should be chasing us. He should want to come here. If he doesn’t want to, no problem. We shouldn’t be chasing people, by the way.”

On 30 April 2019, the Football Association handed Bamford a two-match ban after charging him with “successful deception of a match official” during the home game against Aston Villa in which Bamford feigned injury in a fracas involving Anwar El Ghazi. El Ghazi’s red card was later rescinded by the FA and Bamford received a two-match ban for deception. Replays showed that Bamford had dived to the ground clutching his face despite no contact being made.

In August 2019, Bamford was one of the main stars of the Amazon Prime documentary Take Us Home, telling the story of the 2018–19 season. He featured in several episodes, and the series was narrated by Academy Award-winning actor and Leeds fan Russell Crowe.

After the English professional football season was paused in March 2020 due to Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on association football, the season was resumed during June, Bamford finished Leeds top scorer for the season as they earned promotion to the Premier League and also become the EFL Championship Champions for the 2019–20 season in July after the successful resumption of the season.

Bamford is a distant relative of JCB chairman Anthony Bamford. He plays the piano, violin, guitar and saxophone, and is conversational in French, Spanish and German.

Edward Barford (1898-1979)

EDWARD James Barford was the head of engineering company Aveling Barford.

He was the grandson of the founder of Barford & Perkins, of Peterborough, pioneers in the development of internal combustion engine road rollers.

In the First World War he enlisted at the age of 17 as a private while at Rugby public school. By the age of 20 he was an acting-major.

Twice wounded and severely gassed, he was twice mentioned in despatches and was awarded the Military Cross.

His business career began in 1922 with Agricultural and General Engineers Ltd, a group of long established family engineering businesses into which Barford & Perkins had been merged. It was the largest group of its kind in the country.

After a rapid rise in the organisation, which included a spell as head of exporting, he became personal assistant to the chairman.

He became increasingly dissatisfied with poor management and a lack of policy  and was soon expressing his views publically.

At a shareholders meeting, he managed to instigate a ballot that led to the resignations of all the other directors. This led to a lack of confidence in the company and the receivers were called in.

Despite being several thousands of pounds in debt, he managed to raise enough cash to revitalise Barford & Perkins and well as that of Rochester-based Aveling and Porter, the steam roller manufacturer.

The businesses were merged and encouraged by a council pledge to build homes for essential workers (Walton Gardens) he moved his business to Grantham in 1933/34 on a site at the top of Houghton Road, surplus to Ruston & Hornsby’s requirements. It was a condition that they bought R&H engines for their plant.

Within three years, it was trading profitably and just before the outbreak of the Second World War, it was turned into a public company, paying off all its debts.

He was also a Lloyds underwriter.

Barker, Frederic (1808–1882)

Frederic Barker (1808–1882)

FREDERIC Barker was born at Baslow, Derbyshire, England, the fifth of six sons of Rev John Barker and his wife Jane.

His paternal ancestors had been landowners and stewards of the Dukes of Devonshire and his grandfather had taken holy orders and become ducal chaplain.

Barker was educated at King’s School, Grantham and Jesus College, Cambridge but scholarship was never his main interest.

As a youth he had marked religious convictions. At Cambridge he came under the influence of Charles Simeon, then in his last and mellowest years as the Evangelical mentor of the University.

Barker went down from Cambridge a firm adherent of the Evangelical party in the Church of England. He always remained true to it.

He was made a deacon by the bishop of Rochester, ordained priest by Bishop Sumner of Chester, one of the few evangelical sympathisers on the English bench, who was always to be Barker’s ideal as a bishop. In 1832 he was appointed perpetual curate of Upton by Birkenhead. Late in 1834 he made a tour for the Irish Home Mission Society and is said to have preached 52 sermons in a month.

Offered several parishes in England and Ireland, Barker chose the ecclesiastical district of St Mary, Edge Hill, a Liverpool suburb, mainly middle-class but with a growing industrial population.

He was controversial, an opponent of non-denominational education and, in a city where religious feeling ran high, of Roman Catholicism. Of Barker’s publications during this time, several were criticisms of Roman Catholic doctrine and practice.

He was inducted in the little village church at Baslow in 1854. Three months later he received the offer as Bishop of Sydney, Australia

In December 1880 his health broke down and, after a partial recovery, he left for England in March 1881. He spent the summer in the Lake District and wintered in Italy. He died at San Remo on 6 April 1882 and was buried in the churchyard at Baslow.

Keith Barlow (1892-1914)

RAYMOND Keith Barlow has the unenviable distinction of being the first airman to die in wartime.

He died on 11^th August 1914, just one week after Britain had entered the First World War.

The son of High Street tobacconist  Mr. B. C. Barlow, tobacconist, and a grandson of Mr and Mrs Lewarton, of Wharf-road,  he was an air mechanic 1 in the newly formed Royal Flying Corps.

He qualified as an engineer and tool fitter apprentice with Kearns & Co,  of Broadheath.    He left their employment in 1912 to become an air mechanic and had just completed his first class certificate at Farnborough and was about to go to serve at the front.

Pilot Lt Robert R. Skene and Airman  Barlow were killed when their aircraft crashed en route to Dover, just a couple of minutes after taking off.

The aircraft, which was one of the RFC’s Blériots, was heavily loaded as it was flying under active service conditions.

Just over Netheravon, Lt. Skene, who had been the first man in England to loop the loop, made a sharp left-hand turn and this caused the machine to dive from a height of 150 feet.

Air Mechanic Barlow was thrown out of the aircraft – air crews did not have parachutes until much later on in the war.

His death was on the third anniversary of the death in Grantham Hospital of his elder brother of an appendicitis.  His younger brother was serving in the Royal Navy.

He is buried at Bulford Church Cemetery and is on the war memorials at both Altrincham, where he lived with his grandparents, and St Wulfram’s.

John Barnwell (b1938)

BORN at High Heaton, Newcastle, John Barnwell was an England Youth International who began his career at Bishop Auckland, before making appearances for Arsenal, (plus winning one England Under-23 cap whilst there), Nottingham Forest and Sheffield United.

He retired from playing in June 1971 with a record of 50 goals in 327 senior League games.

Just over a year later John had returned to the game as a coach at Hereford United and then Peterborough United, with his promotion to the manager’s seat there in May 1977.

Probably his biggest job followed, when he took over at Wolverhampton Wanderers, and he was soon involved in two huge transfers of the time, selling Steve Daly to Manchester City for £1.43m and a week later buying Andy Gray for £1.15m from Aston Villa.

At the end of the 1979/80 season he took Wolves to League Cup Final success over his old club, Nottingham Forest, and was voted ‘Midland Sports Personality of the Year’.

Positions after included time in Saudi Arabia and at AEK Athens, but in June 1987 John returned to England as Manager of Notts County, then Walsall and finally as a consultant to Phil Chard at Northampton Town.

Grantham Town chairman, Alan Prince, brought John to The Meres at the start of 1996, where he was initially running the club’s lottery, but following the departure of Warren Ward and a brief spell with Steve Stoutt as the club’s caretaker-manager, he was soon installed at the helm of the club.

However, he was in charge for only a few games at the end of the season, which finished with a 14th place in the league, as in July he was awarded the position of Chief Executive of the Football League Manager’s Association and had to relinquish ties with any one club.

Barnwell is now a life Vice President of the LMA, and is involved in various businesses related to football. He describes his passion as  “The game, the people in it, and its future”.

Compiled with assistance from Jon Barnes