Swimming-club programme, 1898
Sarah Tyley from the Royal Mint Museum shares a programme for a Costume Entertainment evening
The Royal Mint traces its origins back to the reign of Alfred the Great. The mint moved from the Tower of London to nearby Tower Hill in 1812, then relocated to Llantrisant in South Wales in 1968 as part of the plan to decimalise Britain’s currency. The mint’s museum holds plenty of records of the men and women who have worked there over the centuries, which show that despite their weighty responsibilities, they found time to have fun. Sarah Tyley, its collections manager, shares a programme from a Costume Entertainment evening in 1898 that was arranged to raise money for the mint’s swimming club.
What Was The Royal Mint Swimming Club?
The mint has long been home to a strong community of workers, and the museum cares for many items that reflect their shared passions and hobbies. Our archival material in particular records the involvement of mint employees in a range of sports and social clubs. One of the earliest of these, the Royal Mint Swimming Club, had its first committee meeting over 120 years ago on 4 August 1897, when the mint was still located at Tower Hill. The committee’s minute book, which is now retained in the museum’s library, tells us, “It having been decided to start a Swimming Club in connection with the Royal Mint, a meeting of those gentlemen who had promised to join and support the club was called at the Whitechapel Swimming Baths.”
Can You Describe The Programme?
Throughout its lifetime the committee organised excursions, concerts and galas for members and their families. The club also held an annual Costume Entertainment evening. This programme is from the inaugural event held on Friday 14 October 1898 at the Whitechapel Swimming Baths in nearby Goulston Street. The baths were decorated with flags, Japanese lanterns and palms, and more than 400 spectators were treated to events such as blindfold racing, diving displays and the intriguing “33 yards midnight candle race” in which competitors swam in their night attire carrying a lit candle.
This beautifully illustrated programme features a detailed schedule for the event and lists the members of staff who participated. The programme gives us an idea of how seriously the club was taken, from the stylish logo depicting a figure diving into the water, to the fact that they took the time to affiliate the club to the Southern Counties Amateur Swimming Association. Also, the club’s president and vice-presidents were all senior members of the mint’s staff, which must have added to its prestige.
As well as senior figures from the Royal Mint, the programme mentions the officials at the event, in particular “E Clinkscales”. We know from staff records that this is Ernest George Harry Clinkscales. Born in Hackney in 1863, Ernest began working at the mint in 1879 at the age of 16. He appears to have been an active figure, appearing in the minute books of several of the mint’s clubs and societies over his 43-year career. He was secretary of the swimming club, and personally organised the entertainment at many of its smoking and bohemian concerts. The programmes we have from these concerts show that he was not above performing himself with a song called Jack’s the Boy.
Evidently swimming was a very popular activity for staff. In 1898 club vicepresident Edward Rigg, then superintendent of the Operative Department and one of the most senior figures in the mint, said that the club was “a thorough success numbering 41% of the entire staff of the Mint from the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the Charwoman”.
Why Did You Choose This Programme?
The programme is a wonderful example of the community spirit of the mint at the time, and gives
an insight into the lives of its staff. Events such as this were extremely popular, and the associated minute book for the club gives a very personal account of them. For example, it is easy to sympathise with the swimmers on the club’s first excursion to Southend when they visited the New Palace Baths and found the water to be of “arctic temperature”.
The minute book doubles as a scrapbook for the history of the club because someone has meticulously pasted in tickets, programmes and flyers for the events and excursions. The programme and minute book have helped us identify other objects in the collection and their relationship to the club, for example a silver medal awarded to George Orchard at an event in 1909.
What Other Documents Are In Your Collection?
The Royal Mint Museum has a number of staff records that make it possible for us to assist members of the public in their search for information about their ancestors. While lists of names of employees exist from the 16th century onwards, it is not until the late 19th century that our records become more detailed and systematic, when establishment lists and staff records contain summary details for every member of staff including their participation in social clubs like this one.
The museum also holds records for the other sports and social clubs enjoyed by the mint’s staff, and thousands of photographs of people at work dating back to the late 19th century.
Some of our material has already been digitised; for example the mint’s annual reports and the Waterloo Medal Roll can be searched and viewed online via library. royalmintmuseum.org.uk. In the future we hope to digitise our staff records as well. You can find out more about how family historians can use our records at royalmintmuseum. org.uk/journal/curators-corner/ family-history.