Robert Harrison.
Chairman of Aspull Urban District 1913/14 & 1914/15
Elected Chair 23/4/1913, re-elected 22/4/1914
b 1856 Horwich, Lancashire
Parents: John and Ellen Harrison, Beer-seller, Bowling Green Inn, Lee Lane Horwich.
m 1886 Jane, daughter of George Southern, farmer, died 1898.
children: Four sons, two died in infancy another, Peter, died of wounds received in action in France in October, 1917.
m 1898 Annie, daughter of Thomas Southern, engineer, died 1916.
children: Two daughters
d 1936 at New Springs, Wigan
Robert Harrison was born in Horwich in 1857 and attended Rivington Grammar School until the age of 16. His was the son of John and Ellen Harrison, his father was the landlord of the Bowling Green in Horwich and Robert’s early working life was spent assisting his father, the 1881 census describes him as a brewer.
Robert was well known in the early eighteen-eighties as a gentleman amateur athlete, winning prizes in high jumping and hurdle events at amateur sports events in Lancashire and Yorkshire.
In 1886 he married Jane, daughter of George and Jane Southern, at St David’s Church Haigh. Jane’s father is described as a farmer on her marriage. In the 1871 census he was a beer-seller at the Cross Guns in Withington Lane, Top Lock, New Springs where Jane is working as a barmaid. By the time of the 1891 census George had died and Jane was helping her widowed mother running the business at Top Lock.
Following his marriage Robert gave up athletics and took over running the Inn at New Springs becoming a well-known and popular licensee for over fifty years.
Robert became interested in local politics and was elected to the newly created Aspull Urban District Council at its inception in 1894, representing New Springs Ward until his retirement from politics in 1921. For many years he served as vice-chairman and for two years from 1913 as chairman.
He served on the managing bodies of St John the Baptist and Holy Family schools in New Springs as well as the Council School and was a member of the Division 18 Education Committee.
Robert was a member of New Springs Conservative Club, serving as vice-chairman for over twenty five years, and a popular freemason being a member of the Masonic lodges in Bolton Horwich, Wigan and Southport.
Jane Harrison died in February 1898 and was buried in St David’s Churchyard at Haigh. In September Robert re-married at St John the Evangelist Blackpool to Annie, daughter of John Southern, deceased engineer, of 181 Withington Lane, New Springs.
Robert’s son by his first marriage, Peter, was training to be an engineer with Wigan Coal & Iron Company when War was declared in 1914 and volunteered for the Royal Flying Corps but was unsuccessful owing to poor eyesight. He was serving as a driver with the A. S. C. M. T. (Army Service Corps Mechanical Transport) in France when he was wounded and died in hospital in October 1917. His name is recorded on Aspull Cenotaph.
Annie Harrison died in 1916. Robert died on New Year’s Eve 1935 at New Springs and was buried in Horwich Churchyard.
By Peter Walker
Sources:
Aspull Urban District Council Minutes
Wigan Observer 26 April 1913 p9d
Wigan Observer 4 January 1936 p9f