Sir John Lubbock was an influential banker, scientific writer, and politician. He introduced banking reforms, was an advocate for free trade, and was a prolific law maker. He is best remembered for his efforts to reduce working hours and introduce public holidays, including the Shop Hours Regulation Act of 1886. He also worked to introduce laws such as the Open Spaces Act, the Wild Birds Protection Act, the Public Libraries Act, and the first Ancient Monuments Act; all of which still resonate with us today. In 1884, he founded the Proportional Representation Society. Now known as the Electoral Reform Society, it continues his work campaigning for a fairer democracy.
Lubbock came from an influential banking family and lived at High Elms in Downe, Kent. At the age of fifteen he left Eton College to take up a role in the family banking business and was made partner of the firm at the age of 22. After his father’ death in 1865 he became head of the business. He reformed the way cheques were cleared in the provincial banks and became the first president of the London Institute of Bankers.
His interest in natural history and anthropology was encouraged by his close friendship with Charles Darwin. He wrote many articles and books on the subject and he had a particular interest in the social behaviour of ants. He also published the results of a three-month experiment to teach his poodle to read. His early publications were based on studies of specimens from Darwin’s Beagle and in 1855 he discovered the first example of a fossilised musk-ox in Britain.
From 1870 to 1880 he served as the Liberal MP for Maidstone, Kent. While in office he championed changes to reduce shop opening hours, promoting the Early Closing Bills. Another cause which he supported was the introduction on bank holidays. Until 1834 the Bank of England honoured thirty-three festivals and saints’ days as bank holidays. In 1834 as a consequence of reforms this was reduced to four. In 1871, Lubbock succeeded in passing the Bank Holiday Bill, which created the first secular holiday in British history. At the outset of the new legislation these days were known as “Lubbock Days”. Although designed to accommodate banking staff they were soon extended across other businesses.
There was some speculation that Lubbock promoted early closing in order to be able to freely pursue his Sunday leisure interests. This may be partly true, as he allowed his banking staff to conclude their work by 2pm on Saturday afternoons. However, he was more concerned with the health and welfare of workers. The Shop Hours Regulation Act of 1886 limited the hours worked by persons under eighteen years of age to 74 hours per week; this was considered a major breakthrough in working conditions at the time. The law also required closing hours to be standardised to 8pm on weekdays and 10pm on Saturdays. It excluded public houses, refreshment rooms, tobacconists and newsagents, which were seen as essential services.
His proposed reforms were not always popular: he was lampooned by Punch magazine in 1882 with a satirical verse based on an Isaac Watts’ poem:
How doth the busy banking bee
Improve his shining hours
By studying on bank holidays
Strange Insects and wild flowers!
Lubbock was also vilified by The Spectator magazine. His reforms were considered a rich-man’s ideal which did not take into account those owner shopkeepers who chose to stay open late to serve the customers who demanded late opening and who could lose business by closing earlier. The article argued that the men and women of the working class were unable to shop until their own working days were finished and therefore, “Should we not be inflicting a great inconvenience on the poor by saying they shall not buy after 8 o’clock p.m.?” In rural areas there were distances to travel to the shop which would prove impossible to overcome if the shop closed earlier. While the rich had servants to shop for them, the working classes had to shop from day to day. Despite such resistance, the Act was successful.
In 1888 he was elected the President of the London Chamber of Commerce and he served as chair of the London County Council from 1890-1892. He was named a peer in 1900. He chose the title of Avebury, after the ancient druidical site of Avebury, which he had purchased in order to protect it from development.
In 1907, a builder named William Willett, who was a neighbour of Lubbock, put forward a proposal for “Daylight Saving” which would help workers and farmers through extending daylight working hours and saving lighting costs. The initial proposal was quite complex with incremental adjustments throughout the summer. It did not become law until 1916, after the deaths of both men, when it was seen to benefit wartime production and was simplified to advance and reverse the clock by just one hour.
The family home at High Elms was destroyed by fire in 1967; ironically, it burned down on a bank holiday. Yet, there remains on the estate a blue plaque, dedicated to Sir John Lubbock, the first Lord Avebury. It serves as a permanent reminder of his numerous achievements in the worlds of science, business, and politics.
By Elaine Dove, a U3A Shared Learning Project researcher for the Citizens Project
Sources:
Alborn, Timothy L. (2012) “Lubbock, John, first Baron Avebury (1834–1913), banker, politician, and scientific writer,” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/34618
Modern Records Centre, www.mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk
Spectator Archive
http://www.bromley.gov.uk/downloads/file/472/blue_plaques_in_bromley
