POPULAR “SAINT”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 148, 26 June 1934, Page 10

POPULAR “SAINT”

FOUNDER OF BANK HOLIDAYS. TRIBUTE TO LORD AVEBURY. April 30 "was the 100th anniversary of the birth of a peculiarly English “saint.” Sir John Lubbock, the first Lord Avebury, the founder of bank holidays, is canonised for ever in the minds of the people. Hundreds of hikers—shop assistants and city workers—stood bareheaded by a grave in a wood near Fa-rnborough, Kent, on April 29; they were paying a tribute to “Saint Lubbock.” An elderly guide spoke. He said: “Generations who never heard of Lord Avebury have often said, ‘God bless the man, whoever he was, who invented bank holidays.’ He was the especial friend of shop assistants. Before he introduced his bills in Parliament which limited their hours they often worked for 90 and 100 hours a week, and hardly knew the meaning of the word ‘leisure.’ ” Lady Avebury, widow of the “Saint,” had thrown open her home, High Elms, near by, to the pilgrims, who wandered round the rooms, looking at the pictures and relics of the' great philanthropist who died 21 years ago. Sir John Lubbock entered Parliament in 1870. when he was .36, and had the astonishing luck to get his bank holiday legislation passed in the following year. The measure attracted no attention and roused no opposition. “It is often said,” remarked Lord Avebury years later, “that the bill was intended for banks only. This is a mistake. It expressly enacts that no person shall be compelled to do anything on a bank holiday which he could not be compelled to do on Christmas Day or Good Friday.” The popular holidays brought about by Lord Avebury include Whit Alonday and the first Monday in August, known as the “August Bank Holiday.”