Samson Fox (11 July 1838 – 24 October 1903) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
engineer, industrialist and philanthropist. He was elected Mayor of
Harrogate
Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor at ...
in
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
and the building of the
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...
in London was funded largely by Fox.
Life and career
![Leeds forge furnace](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Leeds_forge_furnace.jpg)
Samson Fox was born at Bowling,
Bradford
Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...
,
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
, England, the son of Jonas Fox, a mill worker, by his marriage to Sarah Pearson,
and the family shortly afterwards moved to live and work in nearby
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
. At the age of eight Fox started work in a textile mill and at fifteen he became an
apprentice
Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
in a toolmaking and foundry company.
In his late twenties, he was running his own toolmaking business, called the Silver Cross Works.
Ten years later, in 1874, he set up the
Leeds Forge Company
The Leeds Forge Company manufactured corrugated furnaces for marine steam engine boilers and later, pressed steel railway vehicles, in Leeds, England.
Early history
The company was founded by Samson Fox, who was born in 1838 in Bradford, Yorks ...
to produce "Best Yorkshire" iron for locomotive and marine engine parts. In 1877 he developed the corrugated
boiler flue for which he became famous.
This simple idea involved corrugating the flue pipes inside the boiler, improving both their heat transfer capability and compressive strength, enabling smaller boilers working at higher pressures to be used with improved safety. "Fox Corrugated" was adopted as standard by the
Admiralty
Admiralty most often refers to:
*Admiralty, Hong Kong
*Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964
*The rank of admiral
*Admiralty law
Admiralty can also refer to:
Buildings
* Admiralty, Traf ...
and major steamship lines and was widely patented.
In 1887, Fox applied his knowledge and experience in forging metal to building forged pressed iron railway undercarriages and
trucks
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...
. His railway trucks could support 120 tons without failing, were guaranteed for five years, and were soon being sold in Argentina, Belgium, British India, Japan, and Spain, in addition to England.
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
however was the world's biggest market, so in 1888 Fox went to the United States, where he made a deal with the famous railway salesman
Diamond Jim Brady
James Buchanan Brady (August 12, 1856 – April 13, 1917), also known as Diamond Jim Brady, was an American businessman, financier and philanthropist of the Gilded Age.
Early life and family
Brady was born in New York City to an Irish immig ...
for Brady to sell American-made Fox trucks in America and to remit one third of the sale price back to Fox as commission. Brady's sales techniques soon succeeded, and in 1888 the Fox Solid Pressed Steel Company was incorporated to manufacture the trucks in
Joliet, Illinois
Joliet ( ) is a city in Will County, Illinois, Will and Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the cit ...
.
![Leeds forge advert](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Leeds_forge_advert.jpg)
Fox won a number of awards for his work, including the
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...
gold medal for his corrugated boiler flue and the
French Legion of Honour
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...
.
![Grove House, Harrogate - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Grove_House%2C_Harrogate_-_geograph.org.uk_-_632636.jpg)
Fox bought and extended
Grove House in
Harrogate
Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor at ...
, a Yorkshire
spa town
A spa town is a resort town based on a mineral spa (a developed mineral spring). Patrons visit spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits.
Thomas Guidott set up a medical practice in the English town of Bath in 1668. H ...
, and became a benefactor to the local community.
He provided Harrogate with its first steam fire engine, built the Grove Road School opposite his home, funded the
Royal Hall, and provided affordable social housing. He also built a
water gas
Water gas is a kind of fuel gas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. It is produced by "alternately hot blowing a fuel layer okewith air and gasifying it with steam". The caloric yield of this is about 10% of a modern syngas plant. F ...
plant to provide the main street of Harrogate with some of the earliest street lighting.
Eventually he became Mayor of Harrogate for three successive years (1890–92), a record never equalled since.
He was a JP (
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...
) for both Leeds and Harrogate.
Around 1890, he invited the Croatian artist
Vlaho Bukovac
Vlaho Bukovac (french: Blaise Bukovac; it, Biagio Faggioni; 4 July 1855 – 23 April 1922) was a Croatian painter and academic. His life and work were eclectic, for the artist pursued his career in a variety of locales and his style changed gre ...
to stay at Grove House and paint a series of family portraits. He collected many of Bukovac's other paintings but the collection was dispersed in an auction in 1911. The most important of all his purchases was the huge 'Suffer the Little Children', shown at the Paris Salon in 1888, which the Fox family later presented to St. Robert's church in Harrogate.
In 1892-1894 he provided most of the funds (£45,000, in two donations) to build the
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...
in London, and a bust of him has a prominent place in the entrance hall.
He died in
Walsall
Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...
, Staffordshire, in 1903.
The King sent Harrogate a telegram of condolence.
He had married Mary Anne Slinger in Leeds in 1861. They had four children. At the 1889 wedding of his eldest daughter Clara Louisa to engineer Bernal Bagshawe,
Dan Leno
George Wild Galvin (20 December 1860 – 31 October 1904), better known by the stage name Dan Leno, was a leading English music hall comedian and musical theatre actor during the late Victorian era. He was best known, aside from his music hall ...
was paid the then unheard of sum of £100 to entertain the guests and the grounds of Grove House were thrown open to the people of Harrogate. After the death of his first wife in 1895, he remarried in 1899, to Annie Louise Baxter.
In 1891 Samson Fox was granted Arms by the
College of Arms
The College of Arms, or Heralds' College, is a royal corporation consisting of professional Officer of Arms, officers of arms, with jurisdiction over England, Wales, Northern Ireland and some Commonwealth realms. The heralds are appointed by the ...
, London:
[Harleian Society's ''Grantees of Arms'']
Arms: Argent a representation of a corrugated boiler-flue fesseways proper between two foxes courant Gules each holding in their mouth a trefoil slipped Vert.
Crest: A representation of a corrugated boiler-flue as in the Arms and thereupon a fox Gules resting the dexter paw upon a trefoil slipped Vert.
Motto: Forti Nihil Difficile. (To the brave, nothing is difficult.)
Family
His son, Arthur William Fox, married
Hilda Hanbury
Hilda Louise Hanbury (''née'' Alcock; 16 January 1875 – 23 December 1961) was a British actress and stage beauty. Her grandsons are Edward, James, and Robert Fox, while her great-grandchildren include Emilia, Laurence, Jack and Freddie Fo ...
, sister of actress
Lily Hanbury
Lily Hanbury (1873 – 5 March 1908) was an English stage performer.
Hanbury was born Lilian Florence Alcock, the daughter of Elizabeth (née Davis) and Matthew Henry Alcock. Educated in London, her début was in an 1888 revival of W. S. Gilbert ...
. His grandson
Robin Fox
Robin Fox (born 1934) is an Anglo-American anthropologist who has written on the topics of incest avoidance, marriage systems, human and primate kinship systems, evolutionary anthropology, sociology and the history of ideas in the social scien ...
was the head of the
Fox acting dynasty, making Samson Fox great-grandfather to screen actors
Edward Fox OBE,
James Fox
William Fox (born 19 May 1939), known professionally as James Fox, is an English actor. He appeared in several notable films of the 1960s and early 1970s, including '' King Rat'', ''The Servant'', ''Thoroughly Modern Millie'' and ''Performanc ...
OBE, and film and theatre producer
Robert Fox, great-great-grandfather to English actresses
Emilia Fox
Emilia Rose Elizabeth Fox (born 31 July 1974) is an English actress and presenter whose film debut was in Roman Polanski's film '' The Pianist''. Her other films include the Italian–French–British romance-drama film ''The Soul Keeper'' (20 ...
, Lydia Fox and to actors
Freddie Fox,
Laurence Fox
Laurence Paul Fox (born 1978) is a political activist and former actor, most well-known for playing the supporting role of DS James Hathaway in the British TV drama series ''Lewis'' from 2006 to 2015.
A grandson of the actors Robin and Angel ...
and
Jack Fox.
Samson Fox in popular culture
Fox was the subject of the play, ''The Man who Captured Sunlight'', created by
Harrogate
Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor at ...
Dramatic Society and historian
Malcolm Neesam, and premiered in 2022 in memory of Neesam.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Samson
1838 births
1903 deaths
Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur
Engineers from Bradford
English industrialists
English inventors
English justices of the peace
English philanthropists
Mayors of Harrogate
People associated with the Royal College of Music
Robin Fox family
19th-century British philanthropists
19th-century English businesspeople