Author: Ollie Cowan

Thomas Fresh

1803-1861

Resident of Freshfield, Thomas Fresh is considered by many to be the pioneer of British environmental health.

Fresh, praised for his ‘zeal and devotedness,’ lay the groundwork for a cleaner, safer space for all of us.

Born on a farm in Dalton-in-Furness into a mining and trading family, Fresh did not receive a formal education, instead working for the family business.

In 1839, Fresh was working as a policeman in Liverpool and was promoted in 1841 to ‘Inspector of Police.’ Despite his lack of formal education, Fresh ‘showed such intelligence, zeal, and activity’ that he was promoted to Inspector of Nuisances in Liverpool in 1844, and later worked alongside Dr William Henry Duncan, the first Medical Officer for Health, and James Newlands, the Borough Engineer 

This role was varied and built upon his work as a policeman where he was involved in various environmental health projects. He served as Superintendent of Alms Houses and Superintendent of Scavengers which involved working with the very poor and dealing with waste and refuse collection.

Fresh also arranged for Liverpool’s ‘night soil’ to be transported to Freshfield for use as a fertiliser on unproductive land. This was essential in the development of potato and asparagus farming and cultivation.

Fresh’s team were not trained and his department was established without existing infrastructure to assist them. Fresh built a functioning system with very little resource and the department became a model for other local authorities.

Fresh received a small salary compared with other colleagues and his team made a big difference with very little.

One paper hailed his work saying: ‘Their services are secured for little more than £1200 a year, a proof that in this department, at least, no extravagant salaries are given. The inspector, who brings to his work a zeal and devotedness rarely witnessed in public service of long standing, has only £170 a year.’

His work led, in the words of a contemporary, to ‘an astonishing decrease in those particular diseases which are generally considered to prevail in badly sewered and badly ventilated districts. Much good has undoubtedly been done by the Health Committee and their officers.’

Alongside his work in environmental health, Fresh was a prominent member of the community, with enough local influence to have the area, Freshfield, named after him and a rail station built on behalf of his neighbours.

Freshfield Station was built in 1854, a lasting testament to Thomas Fresh and his contribution to community and local health.

To vote for this Sefton figure in our public poll please click here

Sir Henry Segrave
1896-1930

Henry Segrave was an American-born British automobile and motorboat racer who set four world speed records.

Segrave served as a fighter pilot in the Royal Flying Corps (now the Royal Air Force) during the First World War. Following the war’s conclusion Segrave became a motor car racer, winning Britain’s first long distance car race at Brooklands race track in 1921 as well as the French Grand Prix (1923) and the San Sebastian Grand Prix (1924) in Spain.

On March 16, 1926 Segrave broke his first land speed record at Ainsdale beach, Southport driving his Sunbeam Tiger ‘Ladybird’ at 152.33 miles per hour. The following year he became the first person to travel over 200 miles per hour, regaining the land speed record that had been broken just a month after his achievements on Ainsdale beach.

The final land speed record set by Segrave came on March 11, 1929 at Daytona Beach Road Course in Florida, USA. Racing in his ‘Golden Arrow’ Segrave clocked 231.45 miles per hour. This was the final land record ever attempted by Segrave after he witnessed the death of fellow racing car driver Lee Bible, who was trying to break the land speed record Segrave had set just two days earlier.

Segrave had begun racing motor boats in 1927 and it was in 1930, only a few months after receiving his knighthood, that he set the water speed record on Windermere Lake. On the third run the boat capsized killing chief engineer Victor Halliwell, Segrave was rescued from the wreckage but died shortly afterwards.

The Segrave Trophy was established in his memory and is awarded for “Outstanding Skill, Courage and Initiative on Land, Water and in the Air: the Spirit of Adventure”.

To vote for this Sefton figure in our public poll please click here

Kenny Everett
1944-1995

Comedian, radio DJ and television entertainer. Everett was a controversial and complicated figure.
Born Maurice James Christopher Cole in Seaforth on Christmas day 1944, Everett’s first break as an entertainer came in 1962 when he sent a tape to the BBC.

The corporation were impressed but Everett turned down the opportunity at the BBC in favour of the world of pirate radio where his career began as a DJ for Radio London.

Everett’s irreverent style and sharp humour became his trademark. It was his technical mastery as a DJ that made such an impact on the radio industry throughout the 1960s and 70s. Everett’s quick wit and outspoken and rebellious nature made him a household name but also led to him losing his job on more than one occasion.

It was in 1978 with the launch of the Kenny Everett Video Show that his career in television really took off and Everett’s characters had the opportunity to flourish.

The show initially featured Everett in the role as DJ linking between live performances from musicians, the resident dance troupe Hot Gossip and comedy sketches.

Numerous TV and pop stars made guest appearances on the Kenny Everett Video Show including Rod Stewart, Elkie Brooks, Billy Connolly, Kate Bush, Cliff Richard, Freddie Mercury, Terry Wogan and Suzi Quatro. Everett counted many of these amongst his closest friends.

Everett had married Audrey ‘Lady Lee’ Middleton in 1969 but they had divorced ten years later. Everett had struggled with his sexuality, coming out as gay in 1985 and revealing that this had led him attempting to take his own life on more than one occasion.

In 1987 Everett was diagnosed as HIV positive and on 4 April 1995 died of an AIDs related illness at the age of 50.

To vote for this Sefton figure in our public poll please click here

Frank Hornby
1863-1936

Inventor, businessman, politician. Frank Hornby was a man of many talents but best known for an invention that was the result of experimentation at home making toys for his children.

Hornby was building models in 1899 made from metal strips held together with nuts and bolts. His realisation that these pieces could be constructed to create a versatile modelling kit from which multiple structures could be built, dismantled and reassembled proved to be a masterstroke.

In 1901 this toy was patented as ‘Mechanics Made Easy’ with the intention to teach basic mechanical principles to young inquiring minds. In 1907 this became ‘Meccano’.

Frank Hornby was a visionary in toy development and production, and he began working on clockwork mechanisms, designing his first O-gauge clockwork train in 1920.

This grew into ‘Hornby Railways’ which, alongside ‘Meccano’ and ‘Dinky Toys’, formed three of the most popular toy lines of the twentieth century and made Meccano Ltd the largest toy manufacturer in Britain throughout the 1920s and 30s. The company is still producing toys to this day.

Hornby made a foray into politics in 1931 when he was elected as a Conservative MP for Everton. His political career was not a long one as he resigned his seat shortly before the 1935 General election.

The success of Hornby’s business made him a very wealthy man allowing him to purchase Quarry Brook mansion in Maghull, where he lived until his death on 21 September 1936. This building is now the Sixth Form for Maricourt Catholic High School.

The Atkinson in Southport houses an exhibition on some of Frank Hornby’s work.

To vote for this Sefton figure in our public poll please click here

Albert Pierrepoint

1905 – 1992

Albert Pierrepoint’s story is one that cannot be forgotten in the country’s history on capital punishment. Born in 1905, he was involved in the executions of more than 435 men and women during a career as a hangman that spanned 25 years.

Born into a family of hangmen, both his father and uncle before him were working executioners, Albert is said to have expressed a desire to follow in their footsteps from a very early age.

Pierrepoint was the executioner of many renowned serial murderers, including Gordon Cummins the ‘Blackout Ripper’ and John George Haigh the ‘Acid-bath murderer’. He was also performed the hangings of British Nazi propaganists John Amery and William Joyce, also known as ‘Lord Haw-Haw’, who were sentenced to death for treason.

Following the Second World War Pierrepoint travelled to Austria and Germany to execute over 200 convicted Nazi war criminals including Josef Kramer, the Commandant of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen and Irma Grese, a female SS guard.

In 1955 Pierrepoint hanged Ruth Ellis, a victim of domestic abuse, that had shot dead her abusive partner. At the time, the execution was extremely controversial and is believed to have strengthened public support of the abolition of the death penalty, which came ten years later.

Albert Pierrepoint retired as a hangman in 1956 and in the 1960s he and his wife relocated to Southport where he lived until his death on 10 July 1992, aged 87.

Pierrepoint wrote his memoir Executioner: Pierrepoint in 1974, in which he reconsidered his views on capital punishment as a deterrent, stating:

“All the men and women whom I have faced at that final moment, convince me that in what I have done, I have not prevented a single murder.”

To vote for this Sefton figure in our public poll please click here