Story
Arnold Lupton was born in Whitby on 11th September 1846, but baptised the following year in Leeds, spending his early years at 7 Beech Grove Terrace, West Leeds. His parents were Arthur Lupton (1819-1867) and Elizabeth Wickstead (1816-1904). The Lupton family rose in prominence in the Tudor era through the fame of Roger Lupton, provost of Eton College and chaplain to Henry VII and Henry VIII. By the Georgian era, the family was established as merchants and ministers in Leeds. They flourished during the Industrial Revolution and traded throughout Northern Europe, the Americas and Australia. Indeed Arnold Lupton’s father was born in New York, America. Some of Arnold’s ancestors were Lord Mayors of Leeds and were associated with the Church of England and the Unitarian Church. Several members were well acquainted with the British Royal Family, and the Luptons are ancestors of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, as her great-grandmother Olive Lupton married Richard Noel Middleton.
The family moved around frequently. In 1861, Arnold was living at Holly House, Whittington, Derbyshire, where he was articled to Woodhouse and Jeffcock, civil and mining engineers in Derby. In 1871, he was already a civil engineer, living at 4 Blenheim Terrace, Leeds. In October 1878, Arnold opened Yorkshire College, which later became University of Leeds. The Lupton Residences of the University of Leeds are named after Arnold and his family. He became Professor of Coal Mining, at the Yorkshire College from 1878 to 1899 and an examiner in Mine Surveying for the City and Guilds of London Institute. The Royal Coal Commission employed him to prepare maps, sections and estimates of coal reserves in Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. He was subsequently the consulting engineer and manager at Highfield Colliery, Oakerthorpe in Chesterfield and resident engineer and manager at Bettisfield Colliery. He was consulting engineer and manager of Manston, New Hall, Fieldhouse, and Rock Collieries. As engineer and managing director, he planned work for Tinsley Park Colliery and obtained leases for Yorkshire Main, Maltby Main and Harworth Main Collieries. He inspected coal and other mines and quarries in Britain, Europe, the United States, Australia and India and was an expert witness in Parliamentary and Arbitration cases.
In 1881, Arnold was living in the Colliery Manager’s House in Barwick In Elmet, with his brother Edward Arthur Lupton. Peckfield was not Arnold’s first Colliery Disaster. He was awarded the Silver Medal of the Order of St John of Jerusalem for deeds of gallantry by saving the lives of two people at Wharncliffe Carlton Colliery explosion in Barnsley on 18th October 1883, which killed 17 miners. Arnold was in the pit when the explosion occurred. He said that the blast was not great but it knocked him down. When he recovered, he had lost his lamp, but thought it too dangerous to go back to get it. There were several men who had survived but they had only three lamps between them and they had great difficulty on getting over falls as they made their slow progress to the bottom of the shaft. When they arrived, the injured were taken up first and he realised that Mr. Nash was missing so he and another collier went to try to rescue him. They took a lamp and found Mr. Nash and Mr. Hedley suffering and helpless but they had not lost hope. Lupton told the court he was sure from Saturday morning that there was fire in the colliery.
Arnold was 40 years-old when he married Jessie Ramsden (1859-1938, pictured above) in Leeds on 15th December 1886. Jessie was born in Leeds on 23rd October 1859, the eldest of the 11 children of Lucy Phillips, dressmaker (daughter of a tailor) and her husband John William Ramsden, a photographic chemist. Arnold and Jessie had no children. In 1891 he was a civil and mining engineer living in London. At the Peckfield Colliery Disaster, Arnold was in attendance on 1st May 1896, and led a party of 8 volunteers to help with the rescue efforts.
In 1901 he was at 6 De Grey Road, Woodhouse, Leeds, which was formerly the house of fellow mining engineer William Arthur Hargreaves, who was also in attendance at the Peckfield Colliery Disaster and drew the map of the pit layout. On 2nd May 1901 aged 54, Arnold became a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, and wrote a book in 1903 “Electricity as applied to mining.” Outside mining he developed Niagara Water Power for which he was awarded a prize by the International Commission. He obtained Acts of Parliament for Yorkshire Electric Power and for Derby and Nottingham Electric Power.
In 1906, Arnold was elected as the Member of Parliament for Sleaford, Lincolnshire. He was a controversial figure in his lifetime. He failed to vote for Women’s suffrage as an MP, and was extremely vocal in his protests against vaccination and vivisection. Arnold’s house in Leeds was attacked during the Boer Wars, as he was the leader of a small vocal group of pro-Boer sympathisers calling for the War to stop, and he was fined £200 and £50 costs during the First World War in November 1916 for publishing a pamphlet entitled: “What are we fighting For? Why do we not try to make peace?”. He was imprisoned for six months under the Defence of the Realm Act in 1918 for a repeat offence.
In 1911, Arnold lived at 7 Victoria Street, Westminster, where he passed away on 23rd May 1930, aged 83.
30th April 1896. The Peckfield Colliery Disaster at Micklefield 