James Bason (1920-2013)

James William Bason was headmaster of Belton Lane Primary School for 17 years.

Born in Fakenham, Norfolk, he was the son of a station master and lived in various railway towns during his childhood.

He began work as a printer’s apprentice around 1935 but when war was declared he joined the Royal Air Force.

He eventually flew as rear gunner in Wellington bombers on 33 sorties over Northern Italy and Romania.

Following demobilisation he joined a one-year emergency teachers’ training course in Alsager, Cheshire. It was here that he met and married Vera.

After various headships with British Forces Schools in Germany and Staffordshire, he was appointed headteacher of Belton Lane School in Grantham in 1968. He retired from the school in 1985.

George Bass (1771-1803)

George Bass was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia.

He was born at Aswarby, the son of a tenant farmer, George Bass, and a local beauty named Sarah Nee Newman.

His father died when he was six.

He attended Boston Grammar School and later trained in medicine at the hospital at Boston.

He was accepted in London as a member of the Company of Surgeons aged 18, and in 1794 he joined the Royal Navy as a surgeon.

He arrived in Sydney in New South Wales on HMS Reliance on 7 September 1795.

Also on the voyage were Matthew Flinders, John Hunter, Bennelong, and his surgeon’s assistant William Martin.

Bass had brought with him on the Reliance a small boat with an 8-foot (2.4 m) keel and 5-foot (1.5 m) beam, which he called the Tom Thumb on account of its size.

In October 1795 Bass and Flinders, accompanied by William Martin sailed the Tom Thumb out of Port Jackson to Botany Bay and explored the Georges River further upstream than had been done previously by the colonists.

Their reports on their return led to the settlement of Banks’ Town.

In March 1796 the same party embarked on a second voyage in a similar small boat, which they also called the Tom Thumb. During this trip they travelled as far down the coast as Lake Illawarra, which they called Tom Thumb Lagoon. They discovered and explored Port Hacking.

Later that year Bass discovered good land near Prospect Hill, found lost cattle brought out with the First Fleet, and failed in an attempt to cross the Blue Mountains.

In 1797 in an open whaleboat with a crew of six, Bass sailed to Cape Howe, the farthest point of south-eastern Australia. From here he went westwards along what is now the coast of the Gippsland region of Victoria, to Western Port, almost as far as the site of present-day Melbourne.

His belief that a strait separated the mainland from Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) was backed up by his astute observation of the rapid tide and the long south-western swell at Wilsons Promontory.

Bass discovered the Kiama area and made many notes on its botanical complexity and the amazing natural phenomenon, the Kiama Blowhole, noting the volcanic geology around the Blowhole and contributed much to its understanding.

On Flinders recommendation the passage between Van Diemen’s Land and the mainland was called Bass Strait.

Bass was an enthusiastic naturalist and botanist, and he forwarded some of his botanical discoveries to Sir Joseph Banks in London

He was made an honorary member of the Society for Promoting Natural History, which later became the Linnean Society.

Some of his observations were published in the second volume of David

In October 1800, George married Elizabeth Waterhouse at St James’s Church, Westminster.

She was the sister of Henry Waterhouse, Bass’s former shipmate, and captain of the Reliance.

In January 1801 Bass set sail again for Port Jackson, leaving Elizabeth behind, and though the couple wrote to each other, they did not meet again, as Bass never returned from this journey.

Bass and a syndicate of friends had invested some £10,000 in the copper-sheathed brig the Venus, and a cargo of general goods to transport and sell in Port Jackson. Bass was the owner-manager and set sail in early 1801.

On arrival Bass found the colony awash with goods and he was unable to sell his cargo.

What became of Bass is unknown. He set sail on his last voyage in the Venus on 5 February 1803 and he and his crew were never seen again. His plan was to go to Tahiti and perhaps on to the Spanish colonies on the coast of Chile to buy provisions and bring them back to Sydney.

It has been suspected Bass may also have planned to engage in contraband trade in Chile. Spain reserved the import of goods into her colonies for Spanish ships and Spanish merchants. But the colonists needed more than they could supply and shortages and heavy taxation caused high prices, encouraging an extensive illegal trade with foreign vessels.

In January 1806 Bass was listed by the Admiralty as lost at sea and later that year Elizabeth was granted an annuity from the widows’ fund, backdated to when Bass’s half-pay had ended in June 1803. (Bass had made the usual contributions to the fund from his salary.)

A good deal of speculation has taken place about Bass’s fate. One story, has it that Bass was captured by the Spanish in Chile and sent to the silver mines.

 

 

 

Frank Batchelor (1940-2017)

 

FRANK Henry Batchelor was born in Waltham-on-the Wolds.

He attended the local school before moving on to Belvoir High  School at Bottesford.

He became an apprentice at Ruston and Hornsby, where he worked until 1968 to join Kontaks, on Londonthorpe Lane.

He was employed there for 32 years, followed by six years at McFarlane Packaging.

Together with his wife Vilma, whom he married in 1962, Frank worked tireless for Grantham Swimming Club in the Union Street days of the 1980s/90s.

Frank was also President of the Lincolnshire County Association between 1990-91.

 

Terry Bates (1938-2009)

Terry Bates spent his school years in Morton, attending the primary school and then Bourne Grammar School.

During his schooldays, he played cricket and football for the village teams.

After leaving school in 1947, he completed two years of National Service with the Sherwood Foresters Regiment and on discharge qualified as a teacher at Kesteven Training College, Stoke Rochford.

He specialised in physical education during his time at Carnegie College, which is now part of Leeds Metropolitan University.

Mr Bates returned to Morton when his father became ill.

After teaching spells at Lincoln Road Boys School, Peterborough and The Aveland High School in Billingborough, he joined Bourne County Secondary School., now The Robert Manning College.

There he met his wife Sue, a fellow PE teacher.

He spent nine years’ teaching at the school, during which time he was elected to the Bourne Urban District Council and became a trustee on Bourne United Charities.

He also became a successful manager of Bourne Town Football Club between 1968 and 1972.

He steered the Wakes to three championships between 1969 and 1972. In 1972, Mr Bates left teaching and moved to Wrexham in North Wales, where he was appointed chief leisure and recreation officer with Wrexham Maelor Borough Council. One of his first projects was the development and opening of the Plas Madoc Leisure Centre in North Wales, a site which bears a plaque with his name.

Mr Bates played for Wrexham Football Club and in 1977 he took over as youth development officer of the team.

After three years he moved back briefly to the area, working to open the Toft House Hotel and then as a physiotherapist at Peterborough United. He then spent time in Kent and Humberside as leisure manager.

In 1982 he returned home to become manager of Grantham Leisure Centre, in Union Street, which had been upgraded from the Quincentenary Swimming Pool.

During the late 1980s, Mr Bates had a voluntary role as general secretary of the National Association of Young Cricketers, which he held until his retirement in 1991.

He  became chairman of the United Counties League in 1984 and held office until 1995 when he became president. After leaving that position in 2001 he was made an honorary life member of the competition.

He also managed and coached both the Lincolnshire county senior football and cricket teams and is a former chairman of the Lincolnshire Premier Cricket League.

In 1991 he became a member of Lord’s to build up the England development of excellence scheme.

He spent 13 years there including time as director of administration and development for the National Cricket Association and then national development manager of the England Cricket Board when the two bodies were merged.

He moved on within the English Cricket Board to become chairman of the Cricket Foundation, retiring in 2003.

James Oliver Baxter (1925 – 2012)

JAMES Oliver Baxter was a pupil at Spitalgate Boys’ School, and although he passed his 11-plus had to stay on as his parents could not afford his move.

During the Second World War, Jim Baxter began work as a bricklayer improver helping to build the air raid shelters around Grantham before enlisting into the Royal Navy on his 18th birthday.

He served on cruisers in the Mediterranean and minesweepers in the Irish Sea.

After he was demobilised in 1947, during a really hard winter, there was no work on the building sites so he got a job with Grantham Co-op delivering milk, with a horse & dray, around the Cherry Orchard estate and the new houses around the Tennyson Avenue area.

Jim supplemented his income by working as a sweep in the afternoon.

It was at this time he met and married Gillian Woolley.

He left the Co-op and started working for himself full time.

First he had a market stall in Wide Westgate until 1957 when he bought the old Hand & Heart pub on Wharf Road, where he ran a second-hand furniture business called Jim Baxter’s Victorian Bazaar before concentrating on beds becoming Jim Baxter Furnishings in 1983.

He closed the shop when he retired in 1994.

For several years he was also a gang master supplying potato pickers etc to local farms.

William Beech (1849-1934)

William Beech was born on 19 December 1849, in Middle Gonerby, the youngest boy of 10 children.
Joined the Band of the Kings Royal Irish Hussars when he was 17 years of age after which he came into Civilian Engineering Employment before joining Permanent staff of the Royal South Lincoln Militia at the “New Barracks” on Sandon Road when he was 31 years of age. During that time, he lived in the Barrack Square with his young family.
For 20 years he was their principal Cornet Player but also played numerous other musical instruments.
He retired in October 1903, after nearly 4 years as their Recruiting Sergeant and later became the victualler of the Blue Boat Inn on Old Wharf Road at the side of Grantham Canal.
The String Orchestra he created with his 2 sons was popular at many Local area Dances in the early part of the last Century. He was also Musical Director of the Theatre Royal in George Street, the position taken up later by both his sons.
He died in March 1934 aged 84 years leaving 2 sons and 2 daughters.
He is buried in Grantham Cemetery with his wife and next to his 4-year-old granddaughter who pre-deceased him.
The last B flat Cornet he owned, a French Levy’s Model in the possession of his great-grandson Peter Reichelt, having been reconditioned recently was played for the first time since the 1930s in 2019..
Peter said: “Finally I heard the Great Grandfather I never knew”.

Compiled in conjunction with Peter Reichelt

Wiiliam Beech (1883-1941)

WILLIAM Beech was one of Grantham’s foremost musicians.

He was conductor of the Empire Theatre orchestra and was musical director of the Opera House, Buxton.

Grantham-born, he joined the Army aged only 11 as a drummer boy. He also played violin at Army concerts.

He was on the staff of the 4th Lincolns, stationed Grantham, and while here was leader of the Grantham Philharmonic Society’s orchestra.

When the battalion was at the Isle of Wight, he was in the band chosen to play for late Queen Victoria, at Osborn House.

Mr. Beech left the Army after completing 24 years service, then for a spell became landlord of the Blue Boat Inn, Old Wharf Road.

He then began to take seasonal engagements as a musician in various parts of the country and among the places he visited was the Opera House Buxton, in Derbyshire, where he became musical director.

He returned to Grantham each winter, where his father, brother and himself had their own band, called The Excelsior. In the course of their many engagements they played at Belvoir Castle, and the Grantham Hospital Ball.

Mr Beech, who lived on Dudley Road, was also a member of the orchestra at the Theatre Royal for many years and during the latter part his service was musical director.

He also gave lessons in music, and many of his pupils became members of orchestras.

 

Bryan Meredith Beecroft  (1936-2010)

THE son of a local policeman, Albert Beecroft, Bryan was educated at Huntingtower Primary School and then the Boys’ Central School.

On leaving school at the age of 15 he took an apprenticeship with Pumfrey’s Builders as a carpenter/joiner.

He married Anne in March 1955, followed by four years’ National Service in the Royal Air Force.

On leaving the RAF he ran several businesses, including Beecroft Automatics and East Midland Leisure.

Bryan, played football for St Anne’s, St John’s, Bourne and Grantham Town. He also had a trial with Barnsley Football Club but decided not to pursue it.

The family then moved to Greetham, Rutland, where he immersed himself in village life, foreign travel, socialising with family and friends and fund-raising for a new community centre.

Following the sale of the family business he returned to the building industry, converting several barns in the village.

On retiring he returned to Grantham with his wife Anne

Harry Beeden MBE (1873-1941)

BORN at Thorpe, near Newark, he was the grandson of William Beeden, a Freeman the Borough Grantham.

He was educated at the Grantham National and British Schools, in Grantham, and for 16 years was with the firm of Messrs W. B. Harrison and Sons, Watergate, from which retired, and took over the old-established business the late Mr. Andrew Ross, draper and clothier, on St Catherine’s Road,  where he also lived.

The same year he married Emma Weatherhogg at the Congregational church where both had been active workers for many years.

In about 1911 he began to take an interest in public affairs.

At that time, the question of the Public Library and Museum was promoted, and Alderman Beeden undertook the secretaryship of the movement for which worked most assiduously.

In 1913, having been invited to seek municipal honours, he contested the West Ward, but was not successful.

At the end of the Great War in 1918 he won the East Ward seat.

In 1922 he offered himself for re-election, and was returned with an increased majority.

On the death of Alderman Rear in 1924, he was elevated to the aldermanic bench and the following year became Mayor.

In addition to the important work did in connection with Civil Defence as member that committee,  in the Second World War, he carried out the duties chief air raid welfare officer.

Outside his council work, his chief interest centred in the National Savings movement, with which became associated before entered the Town Council.

When the local savings committee was formed in the borough he became hon secretary, and continued this office until last month, when he was compelled to resign for reasons health.

His activities in this field service had undoubtedly been prodigious. Big money-raising campaigns had to be organised during the war, from which, together with the regular savings it is estimated that well over £12m was invested people in the borough

For this work he was awarded an MBE.

The two outstanding achievements during his secretaryship were the War Weapons Week effort in March, by which £200,714 was raised in the borough—more, than double the target and the passing of the million pounds mark in national savings the week prior to his resignation from the office, a feat accomplished in 19 months.

War Weapons Week was undoubtedly the most ambitious effort ever undertaken in Grantham from the point of view of National Savings, and it fell upon the shoulders of Alderman Beeden to bear the burden of the organisation.

Aid Beeden’s greatest work as a member of Town Council, were in connection with housing.

Right from the time entered the council had been a member of the housing committee and for the greater part was its chairman.

602 houses were built during his service on the committee. The first scheme was that put into operation immediately following the last war and known the Addison scheme. This was the Earlesfield estate on Dysart Road, which was for 120 houses, a large number of which cost £1,000 as they were constructed a time when building materials and the cost of labour were very high.

Next the schemes Belton Lane, Turnor Crescent and Walton Gardens. He was also behind Gorse-rise and Cherry Orchard,

As the war began, he was behind the 227 houses, which are being built using concrete substitute for timber and flat roofs.

For his work on housing the estate was named after him – Beeden Park (even though many still refer toi it as the Flat Tops, which they are no longer).

 

Charles Bell (1846-1899)

Charles Bell was a British architect who designed buildings in the United Kingdom, including over 60 Wesleyan Methodist chapels.

Born in Grantham, he was educated at Grantham Grammar School.

He was articled to London architect John Giles.

In 1870 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects and started independent practice.

 

Peter Bell (1918 – 2015)

Peter Bell was an artist, curator, and art critic who played an influential role in the development of the visual arts in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Bell was born at Grantham, at the end of the First World War.

As a young adult, he worked briefly for an insurance firm before enlisting in the British Armed Forces during the Second World War.

When hostilities ended, he moved to South Africa. He studied architecture at Cape Town University from 1947 to 1949, and then completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Rhodes University in Grahamstown.

Upon graduation in 1952, he accepted a teaching position at the Ndaleni Art School in Natal. He became head of that institution in 1959.

Bell left South Africa in 1963, after his vocal opposition to apartheid led to a brief arrest.

He moved to Newfoundland to teach art at Memorial University and to curate the institution’s Art Gallery (now The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery).

During Bell’s tenure, the gallery’s collection grew considerably and in 1967 it was relocated from the Henrietta Harvey Building on Memorial University campus to the more spacious Arts and Culture Centre.

Bell stepped down as gallery curator in 1972 and became Memorial University’s Artist in Residence.

From 1973-1980, he was the visual arts critic for the Evening Telegram. Bell became noted for his blunt, and sometimes scathing, reviews and for his thorough knowledge of the field.

All the while, he worked steadily on his art.

He painted in oil and acrylic on masonite and made serigraph prints. He differed from most Newfoundland landscape artists at the time in that he did not focus exclusively on the Newfoundland environment.

He drew inspiration from his private greenhouse, which he stocked with huge exotic plants and small tropical birds.

View From My Studio, a series of paintings about his home in Outer Cove, depicts the lush ecosystem in which he lived and worked. Another of his better-known works, Day Haunt of the Siffleur Montagne, was inspired by the Caribbean island of Dominica, which he and his family frequently visited.

Botany was another of Bell’s passions. He and his artist wife Charlotte Macnee, established an orchid business in Outer Cove, where they built the first geodesic dome house and greenhouse in Newfoundland.

For several years they published the nationally distributed Canadian Orchid Journal. They eventually abandoned the orchid business and journal to devote more time to their art.

Bell exhibited his work internationally, as well as across Canada and the province.

In 1985, he was commissioned to paint a mural for the West Block of the provincial government’s Confederation Building.

In 1987, the Memorial University Art Gallery organized a retrospective of his work, and in 2001 and 2002 he participated in the Toronto International Art Fair. In 2008, The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery launched a solo exhibit of his work, entitled Peter Bell’s Alternative World’s.

It consisted of 25 works that were produced from the early 1960s until 2006. The exhibit was the first in a series that The Rooms organized to highlight important figures in the development of the visual arts in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Bell’s work is included in many private and public collections, including The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery’s Permanent Collection; the National Gallery at Cape Town, South Africa; the Canada Council Art Bank; and the Simon Fraser University at Burnaby, BC.

Bell and Macnee moved to Kyle of Lochalsh, Scotland, in 1987, but they returned periodically to Newfoundland to visit relatives and friends.

He died in September 2015 at the age of 97.

Compiled by Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador