Biographies of notable Bosbury people
SAMUEL WILLCOX 1827-1915
Photograph courtesy of C.F.Ballard reproduced in the first edition of David E. Bick’s book, ‘The Hereford & Gloucester Canal’, 1979.
Samuel Willcox was born in Highley in Shropshire, a village midway between Bridgnorth and Kidderminster, in 1827. His family moved to Gloucester and he and his father walked to Ledbury where it was agreed he be apprenticed to the canal and railway engineer, Stephen Ballard. Samuel was lodging with his master in South Parade, Ledbury in 1841.
Samuel first worked with Stephen Ballard on the Hereford and Gloucester Canal and in 1845 was asked to go to East Anglia where Stephen was Resident Engineer on the Middle Level Main Drain project east of Wisbech, to work as his assistant.
His first involvement with railways was also with Stephen Ballard on the Great Northern Line between London and Peterborough including a difficult crossing at Whittlesea Mere, an area of fenland which is now long gone. The 75-mile section was completed around 1846.
In 1853 at the age of 26 he married a Ledbury girl, Mary Spencer, aged 22 (incidentally Mary was Stephen Ballard’s niece) and soon after they travelled to Holland where he worked on the Utrecht to Rotterdam line for the NRS railway. Their son, also named Samuel, was born the following year while the family was living in Holland. The railway line was opened in 1855 and the family returned to England where back in Ledbury a daughter, Mary, was born in 1856. Samuel was soon off to Europe again working for CF de l’Ouest on the Paris and Caen railway. This line opened in 1857.
In 1865 Samuel was working on the construction of the Main Range Railway from Ipswitch to Toowoomba in the south-eastern corner of Queensland, Australia. He was responsible for the construction workforce many of whom were brought in from England and western Europe their passage being paid for by the Contractor. The Contractor for the work was the partnership of Peto, Brassey and Betts whose engineer-in-charge was Robert Ballard. Robert was Stephen’s nephew and was possibly chosen being known to Thomas Brassey and because of his tunnelling experience. Samuel Willcox had worked for Brassey earlier in Europe. The line opened in April 1867.
An A10 Neilson Class 0-4-2 locomotive from this era on display at The Workshops museum, Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. Another Class A10 was owned by Peto, Brassey and Betts. The track was 3′–6″ (1.067mm) narrow-gauge.
On his return to England, he arranged for his son, Samuel, to attend Malvern College from the age of 14 to 17. In later life the son became a solicitor living in Leicestershire and a partner in the Leicester firm of Stone, Billson, Willcox and Dutton.
By the 1891 census Samuel Willcox is retired and living at ‘The Grange’, Bosbury with his wife and daughter. In 1895 their daughter, then aged 39, married Horace Gilbert Caton Emberson of Ledbury. He sadly died only nine years later.
Samuel’s wife died in 1903, and a year later his daughter was widowed and she moved to
‘The Grange’. In 1911 the household consisted of Samuel senior, his daughter, Elizabeth Ballard who was their
housekeeper, two sick nurses and three servants.
Samuel Willcox died in 1915 at the age of 88 and is buried in Bosbury churchyard with his wife and his daughter and her husband.
Researched by Barry Sharples, 2019.
Further information courtesy of Roger Jones.
