12th August 2024
Quiz Trail trivia for August: The Maidstone MP we have to thank for our Bank Holidays
Hats off to Maidstone MP Sir John Lubbock! We have a Bank Holiday coming up and it was a Maidstone MP who increased the national Bank Holidays from two paid days per year up to six days per year in the 1800's.
Maidstone MP Sir John Lubbock got the Bank Holidays Act through Parliament in 1871. Prior to this there had been two paid days off a year for workers – Christmas Day and Good Friday.
Four extra Bank Holidays immediately arrived! Easter Monday, Whit Monday, the first Monday in August (which is now the last one) and Boxing Day. The paid days off were so popular that they were initially called St Lubbock’s Days.
He was one of the most popular MP's of the time. A successful banker he can be remembered for creating the cheque clearing system that is still in place today. He was also one of the most successful law makers of the Victorian age – also passing the Shop Hours Act, Open Spaces Act, Public Libraries Act and The Ancient Monuments Act which paved the way for the creation of English Heritage that we know so well today. It was the first law that protected heritage and archaeology.
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