You can bet that Michael built the Speaker’s Chair
A90-YEAR-OLD who built Parliament’s Speaker’s Chair has revealed he stuffed his signature inside it – written on an old betting slip.
Michael Lashford-Spinks was just a teenage apprentice when he helped create the iconic seat in the 1940s.
The original Speaker’s Chair, designed by Pugin in 1849, was destroyed when the House of Commons was bombed in the Second World War.
But a replica of the gothic creation was created by Michael LashfordSpinks, then 15, and some fellow craftsmen.
And because he had no way to claim his work he wrote his name on part of an old betting slip and wedged it into one of the cracks – and it’s still there.
The chair is seen during the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions and other political debates.
Michael is one of just two people still alive who worked on the iconic piece of furniture at the H H Martyn and Co Ltd factory in Cheltenham.
Mr Lashford-Spinks, from Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, was a woodcarver for the company.
He said: “I went straight from a rough school at 15 with hopes to be a cabinet maker. But I was told they had enough of those and asked if I was interested in wood carving.
“I had never heard of it but I came to realise I loved working with wood.
“There were about 16 people who worked on the chair and only two of us are still alive – me and John Shepherd.
“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 betting slip and put it in one of the cracks of the chair before it was sealed up.”
Michael said he later received a letter from George Thomas, Speaker from 1976 to 1983, who said he was “tickled” by the creativity.
Michael 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.”
Michael says he was an apprentice at the company until 1951 – the start of his 22-year career as a craftsman.
The wood carver worked on several parts of the chair including the main columns.
Mr Lashford-Spinks said: “It was just a job really. You could never hang about to look at your work, you always moved on so quickly and it worried me sometimes.
“I was working straight after school in the evenings and had to cycle to Martyn’s every day and we were still on rations.
“I even remember collapsing one day from what we call hypothermia now.”
The craftsman says he was involved in hundreds of projects from working at Martyn’s and his subsequent freelance work.
These included items in Buckingham Palace, the glass ceiling of the Royal Palace in Baghdad and pots used in a James Bond film.
The father of one also worked on Concorde, completing seven years with Smiths Aerospace (now GE Aviation Systems).
Mr Lashford-Spinks, whose wife, Cynthia, died 18 months ago, also served in the army with the Royal Corps of Signals.
He now lives with his daughter, Lorraine, his granddaughter, Isha, and his dog.
He said: “I’ve crammed a lot into my old life but it’s been wonderful. I can say I’m bent like an old man now.
“I really do hope nothing ever happens to that chair because my workshop is now my daughter’s bedroom and all my tools have gone.”
As to how Speaker George knew of his note, Michael said: “When I was working at Martyn’s I used to listen to George Thomas on the radio.
“When he retired, I wrote to him telling him what I had done by putting my name in the chair and that I would miss him shouting ‘Order, order!’
“He replied saying he was thrilled to hear from me and what I had done had tickled him”.