On Wednesday December 20, 1916 Joel Cadbury left his home in Tudor Hill to walk to Sutton Coldfield railway station.
He was a member of the famous chocolate-making family - though he himself was a button manufacturer. Cadbury was accompanied to the railway station by his gardener William Harris and arrived at his destination at about 9am. He sat down for a few minutes in the booking hall and then suddenly expired.
A doctor subsequently declared that he had succumbed to syncope - a fall in blood pressure leading to unconsciousness - as a result of the cold weather.
A few days later the Cadbury family gathered at Witton Cemetery for his internment.
Cadbury was 73 at the time of his death and had lived in Sutton for many years.
He was a very wealthy man, but, like all of the Cadburys, did not just spend his money on himself. Cadbury is a forgotten Sutton philanthropist and his story should be told.
He was on the committees for the dispensary - which since 1889 had provided medicines to Suttonians on payment of an annual subscription and of the Cottage Hospital, which opened, at a cost of £2,500, in 1908. He was also from 1893 until his death the treasurer of the Home of Rest. This institution was opened by Cadbury in 1893 in the Parade and was funded by subscriptions.
It catered for women and girls who worked in shops and factories and were in need of an escape from their hard lives. As the numbers who needed this respite grew, the Home of Rest moved to a large house in the Driffold.
To the credit of Sutton subscribers, the Home of Rest was thrown open to women from Birmingham and Walsall.
Cadbury greatly valued Sutton Park. When a proposal was put forward to build a rifle range on marshy ground alongside Longmoor Pool in January 1906 for the use of the Sutton Volunteers, he mustered the resistance.
He believed that such a development would disturb the peace and tranquility of the park. Cadbury was noted as a man of 'quiet, unaggressive persistence' and in the face of 'rigorous agitation', the town council took the plan no further.
Glimpses into Sutton's Past 1800-1918 by Stephen Roberts is now available as a very handsome hardback, £15.99.
Associate Professor
Stephen Roberts