Bernard Mason OBE (12 September 1895 – 29 April 1981) was a prominent

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

businessman and philanthropist who was born in Ipswich but lived his whole life in Colchester. He was the proprietor of Mason's printing firm from which he retired as director in 1962. Mason began collecting Colchester-made

clock A clock or a timepiece is a device used to measure and indicate time. The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month and the ...

s in 1927 and bequeathed the collection to the town, along with his home "Tymperleys" (the former mansion of Elizabethan scientist Dr William Gilberd). Mason was a Freeman of the

Worshipful Company of Clockmakers The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers was established under a royal charter granted by King Charles I in 1631. It ranks sixty-first among the livery companies of the City of London, and comes under the jurisdiction of the Privy Council. The c ...

and the author of ''"Clock and Watchmaking in Colchester"'' (1969) which originally cost four guineas (£4 4s. 0d.; £4.20). He was made an OBE in 1959. Mason claimed that there are 375 known examples of Colchester clocks and he managed to collect 216 of them in his lifetime, travelling far and wide to bring them back “home”. Tymperleys currently houses the Mason Collection as part of the Colchester Clock Museum. The collection comprises 203 clocks and 14 watches made in Colchester from the 17th to 19th centuries. Significant items include a

lantern clock A lantern clock is a type of antique weight-driven wall clock, shaped like a lantern. They were the first type of clock widely used in private homes. They probably originated before 1500 but only became common after 1600; in Britain around 1620 ...

from 1645 by William Bacon, and a

mantel clock Mantel clocks—or shelf clocks—are relatively small house clocks traditionally placed on the shelf, or mantel, above the fireplace. The form, first developed in France in the 1750s, can be distinguished from earlier chamber clocks of simila ...

from 1725 by

Nathaniel Hedge Nathaniel Hedge (born 1710) was an English clockmaker based in Colchester in Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertf ...

. Bernard Mason was in charge of air raid warnings throughout Colchester district during World War II.

Personal life

Mason was born in

Felixstowe Felixstowe ( ) is a port town in Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest container port in the United Kingdom. Felixstowe is approximately 116km (72 miles) northeast of London. His ...

, to Ernest Nathan Mason, an engineer's draughtsman and

Bertha Betsey Mason Bertha Bets(e)y Mason (''née'' Kitton; 11 January 1872 – 12 March 1937) was a Colchester businesswoman. She was the owner and founder of E.N. Mason and Sons Ltd, a photographic business which was one of the first businesses to develop an ear ...

(née Kitton), and had two brothers, Eudo and Conrad and a younger sister Helena. Mason's father had worked for Paxmans, before developing a method of making photographic blueprints from engineering drawings and setting up his own firm E.N. Mason and Sons Ltd. Mason married Evelyn Lily Franklin in Colchester in 1927. Mason's younger brother Eudo Mason (1901–69) was a scholar and professor of German literature.

Bibliography

* 1969 Clock and Watchmaking in Colchester England

References

External links

* People from Colchester English philanthropists English printers 1895 births 1981 deaths 20th-century British philanthropists 20th-century English businesspeople {{publish-bio-stub