OLD PLYMOUTH . UK
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WHO WAS WHO IN OLD PLYMOUTH

ROBERT COAD SERPELL (1816-1886)

Robert Coad Serpell was born in the Liskeard area on March 14th 1816.  When he finished his schooling he was apprenticed to Mr Melhuish, a grocer in Drake Street, Plymouth.  Two other apprentices with him were to also achieve local success, Mr Eldred Brown and Mr Joseph Wills, who went on to found Messrs Brown, Wills and Nicholson Limited.

When young Robert had completed his apprenticeship he joined the British and Irish Sugar Company in Mill Street, Plymouth.  He was later appointed as their traveller in Cornwall.

Mr Robert Coad Serpell married Miss Catherine Wilson in Wandsworth, London, in 1844.

In 1852 he joined into partnership with Mr George Hender Frean and Mr George Daw who operated two corn mills, Drake's Mill and Marsh Mills, and a biscuit manufactory in the old Admiralty Victualling Office bakery on the Barbican.  In 1857 that partnership was dissolved when Mr George Hender Frean moved to Bermondsey, London, where he and Mr James Peek began their own biscuit manufacturing business.  Now the business was Messrs Daw and Serpell.

Mr Serpell was elected to represent Drake Ward in 1863 and continued to serve until he retired in November 1875.  He was elected as Mayor of Plymouth for the year 1870-71 and while holding that post he made the first proposals for a Free Library in Plymouth.  He donated the first £100 towards the furnishing and stocking of the Library.

Following the deaths of 75-years-old Mr George Frean at 12 Endsleigh Place, Plymouth, on Friday September 4th 1868 and Mr George Daw at 6 Saint James's Terrace, Plymouth, on Friday November 13th 1868 at the age of 63 years, the business name was changed to Messrs R C Serpell and Company, although Mr Daw's son, Mr Richard Harvey Daw remained with the Company.

With his first wife having died on December 22nd 1873, Mr Serpell married a Mrs Helen Edwards Opie, the widow of one of the Company's travellers, in 1875.

Mr Serpell retired from the milling side of the business on December 30th 1882, which was continued by Mr Richard Harvey Daw.

Mr Robert Coad Serpell died just after speaking at a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce on the afternoon of Monday October 25th 1886.  He expired with the words: 'It's all over; if it be through Thee, Lord Jesus, praise be Thy name. Amen.'

During his life he was also a great supporter of education and it was largely through his efforts that the George Street Baptist Day School was built.  He was elected as chairman of the first Plymouth School Board when it was formed.  He resigned from the post of chairman of the School Board in 1873 because he refused to administer the law that required fees to be paid from the public rates for children attending denominational schools.  Mr Serpell and about thirty other ratepayers refused to pay the School Board rate and happily had their goods seized by the bailiffs and sold by public auction.  When the law was changed in 1880 he was again elected to the School Board, only to lose at the 1883 election, probably, it was said, because everyone so expected him to be returned that they cast their votes elsewhere.

Mr Serpell was an active supporter of the George Street Baptist Chapel and Mutley Baptist Chapel, the Liberal Party, the Port of Plymouth Chamber of Commerce (he became chairman in 1868) and also the temperance movement.  He made a donation of £500 towards the erection of the Young Men's Christian Assocation building in Bedford Street.

Robert's son, Mr Henry Oberlin Serpell (1853-1943) changed the name of the business to Messrs H O Serpell and Company before removing the biscuit manufacturing to Reading, in Berkshire, in 1899, taking his staff with him.  Both are buried in the Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devon port Cemetery (Ford Park Cemetery), Plymouth.