In part one, we looked at Sam Robbins’ roots and the journey from humble beginnings to a flourishing business empire in Rugby. Here, we look at the legacy he left in the community.
A figurehead of the community
Sam Robbins seems to have been happy to give back to the community in which he had become established, and allowed his properties to be used for various community endeavours. For example, in 1913, his offices were used by a representative of the Western Australian Government to approve applications to travel by steamship to that distant continent. On another occasion, Sam Robbins used his skills as an auctioneer to conduct an auction of ‘oddities’ on behalf of a student RAG fundraising event in 1931.
He also participated in the war effort, supplying the Northamptonshire Yeomanry ‘with five “ Triumph ” 3-speed motor cycles, and also with 15 “ B.S.A.” bicycles’. As a member of the Urban District Council, he is reported as being on the platform to see the departure of the Rugby Infantry Company to war. He did his bit for refugees as well, offering to collect and deliver goods such as ‘beds, chairs, chests of drawers, carpets, lamps, linen, etc’ for the use in Newton House for the accommodation of 24 Belgian refugees. His wife is recorded as donating gifts to help the refugees at Christmas 1914.
‘Most conveniently and pleasantly situated’
Sam Robbins spent the rest of his days living at Paddox House on Dunsmore Avenue.
I have to confess that this is where my interest in Sam Robbins was piqued, because I grew up in the very same house. In fact, my and my sister used to joke that he died in the bedroom she slept in, and that we saw his ghost haunting the stairways. It didn’t help that the date of his death (15th February) was also her birthday.
We’ve been lucky enough to have been left some old photographs of the house and of Sam Robbins living there, which we gifted to the Rugby Museum and Art Gallery. We think the house itself is Georgian, and in former years it was owned by various brothers and uncles of the Cooper family of Markree Castle in Ireland. My favourite feature of the house has to be the beautifully moulded ceilings. I wonder if Sam Robbins also liked to gaze at them whilst sitting by a roaring log fire of an evening? We do know that he held regular Bridge Parties at the house, and when he passed away, he requested evergreen leaves and flowers from the garden to be placed around his grave.1
In 1912, when Sam Robbins conducted the auction for the new building estates at Hillmorton Paddox (including Dunsmore, Moyeady, and Rainsbrook Avenues), he ‘pointed out that this is most conveniently and pleasantly situated in one of the most healthy and nature-endowed spots of Warwickshire‘. What excellent taste he had, I must say!
Who wants to be a millionaire?
Sam Robbins left quite a legacy. After his death in 1933, the Rugby business was kept in the family line through his daughter Margaret Ella Shotter née Robbins. It lasted until 1987, when the business finally ceased trading. As the Rugby Advertiser at the time put it, ‘an era in local trading [had] come to an end.’
When he died in 1933, Sam Robbins was in the lucky position to have effects worth £25008 and 9 shillings to leave to his two children.2 That’s over £1.5 million in today’s money! From a family of servants and farmers, with an illegitimate and abusive father, Sam grew up to develop a thriving business empire and to give something back to his community. And dear old Rugby is where it all happened.
References
1 Barbara Witt, ‘Samuel Robbins, Esq.’, in Aspects of the Past 3 (Rugby Local History Research Group), 31-32.
2 National Probate Calendar, Samuel Bevan Robbins, 11 Apr 1933.
Comments
I was excited to find out recently that Sam Robbins held charity garden parties at Paddox House, to raise funds for children with disabilities in his area – because my parents also held charity garden parties there, to support vulnerable people locally. Such a nice coincidence, it was obviously such a lovely space it had to be shared.
Robbins even had a glass harmonica performance there – pretty unique!
Claude Blagden was Rector of Rugby from 1912-1927, when he left to become Bishop of Peterborough. In his autobiography “Well Remembered”, Blagden mentions Robbins (page 217): “…as I came out of church I saw furniture removers, an hour before their time, dismantling the house and carrying my precious possessions to Sam Robbins’ vans”.
As you can see from my own name I am interested in the story of Rugby’s own Sam Robbins. Rugby was my father’s home town and although I was born and raised in Yorkshire, I remember visiting the town as child in the 1950s. I distinctly remember seeing a van with my name driving down the street and asking a relative why my name was on the van. All I was told is that he was a prominent businessman and that I might be related to him. I also have a childhood memory of being told that he visited my parents shortly after I was born and that is why I was named Sam. S’funny though because shortly before my mother died I asked her about this and she denied any knowledge of the event. So who knows, maybe we were related in the dim and distant past. Does anybody know what religion Rugby’s Sam Robbins belonged to?
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