Craftsman made name with Speaker’s Chair... literally
MEET the Midland craftsman who helped build the Speaker’s Chair – and secretly stuffed his name inside it written on a betting slip.
Michael Lashford-Spinks was just an apprentice during the chair’s creation in 1945 – and because he had no way to claim his work, he wrote his name on an old betting slip and wedged it into one of the cracks.
The original Speaker’s Chair, designed by Pugin in 1849, was destroyed when the House of Commons was bombed in the war.
Mr Lashford-Spinks, 90, is one of just two people still alive who worked on a recreation of the iconic piece at the HH Martyn and Co factory in Cheltenham.
Mr Lashford-Spinks, from nearby Winchcombe, was a woodcarver for the company.
He said: “There were about 16 people who worked on the chair.
“We had four carvers – myself, Sam Borour, Charlie Tisbouna and Les Timms – who carved the Royal Coat of Arms into the chair.
“One was even a communist who read the Daily Worker!”.
Mr Lashford-Spinks worked on several parts of the chair including the main columns and revealed that if it was to be opened up, evidence of his involvement would surface. He explained: “Most of the markers and carvers at Martyn’s had name stamps – like mason marks – where you can claim your work.
“After the chair is made, that’s when all of the decorative stuff gets added, and there was a brief moment where the chair had not been glued. I was too poor to buy a name stamp so I wrote my name on a piece of paper and put it in one of the cracks of the chair before it was sealed up.”
Mr Lashford-Spinks added that he later received a letter from George Thomas, who served as a member of parliament and Speaker of the House of Commons from 1976 to 1983, who said he was “tickled” by Mr Lashford-Spinks’ creativity.
He admitted: “All Mr Thomas knew was that I wrote it on a piece of paper – I didn’t dare tell him it was actually written on a betting slip – he would not have approved of gambling”.
The experienced craftsman was involved in hundreds of projects over the years from making items in Buckingham Palace, the glass ceiling of the Royal Palace in Baghdad and pots used in the 1985 James Bond film ‘A View to a Kill’.