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This wealth of records is a valuable source of information for any family or local historian researching the history of the town, public and private buildings, local institutions, events or individuals and their families.

Within this archive there is a small but interesting group of documents relating to a former Mayor of Wisbech, William Martin Rust, and to his family. The collection comprises Rust’s scrapbook containing various ephemera which are either directly relating to Rust or were of a personal interest to him, family photograph albums and a personal incident book which he kept for nearly twenty years as Superintendent of the Wisbech Fire Brigade.

The papers, when combined with local newspapers, Corporation minutes and both census and parish records, provide a fascinating portrait of a Victorian public servant.

 

Left - William Martin Rust in his Mayoral robes including the new Mayor's chain of office.

 

 

 

William Martin Rust and his sister Emma were born in Norwich, children of William Taylor Rust and his wife Emma who both hailed from Suffolk. In the late 1830s the family moved to Wisbech. William Taylor was appointed Superintendent of the Police and two more children were born – Henry, who later served in India with 2nd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, and Eliza.

Little is known of William Martin’s childhood and education, although it is probable that he served some sort of apprenticeship before entering into trade on his own account.

At first William Martin and his wife Augusta, who came from Clapham in Surrey, lived on the Nene Quay where he carried on the trade of painter and glazier, employing two apprentices and an errand boy. In 1851 the business moved to the former premises of Mr. W. Batterbee in the Market Place. The following year saw the birth of the couple’s first child, William Henry, to be followed by Augusta (1853), Emily Florence (1856), Emma Constance (1858), Ada Louise (1860), Martin Albert (1863), and Herbert Malcolm ( 1864). William Henry died in May 1856 aged just two and a half years, the first of two sons to die before reaching adulthood. The other was Martin Albert who was tragically drowned whilst bathing in 1879.

Having established his plumbing, glazing, and painting business in the Market Place, Rust turned his attention to public service, possibly inspired by his father’s example of over fifty years’ service in various police forces. When W.T, Rust finally retired in July 1875 he was Superintendent of Police for the Wirksworth district in Derbyshire, a position he had held for the previous eighteen years.

 

Photo above - Poster from Rust's scrapbook.

 

Photo above - Wisbech Market Place 1893.  Rust's plumbing and decorating shop can be seen to the right of the Mermaid Inn.

 

In January 1856 William Martin Rust accepted the appointment as Superintendent of the Wisbech Borough Fire Brigade. His salary was £10 per annum plus another two guineas as ‘conductor’ of one of the fire engines. At this time the Brigade consisted of twenty firemen including two other ‘conductors’, John Todd (the Town Crier), a police sergeant and six policemen. However, in 1859 the control of the Brigade was taken over by the Local Board of Health who subsequently disallowed policemen acting as firemen.

 

 

 

Rust’s incident book, which he kept as Superintendent, is a fascinating record of the Brigade in the mid-nineteenth century. The meticulous accounts of each fire that they attended list all manner of payments. Tolls had to be paid for the use of the turnpike roads, which encircled the town at that time, and one has visions of the firemen fumbling for the right change before being allowed to proceed! Besides payments to the firemen, expenses were paid to local people who assisted at incidents – they were usually 2s 6d for men, 1s for labourers, 6d for youths and 1s 6d for women!

 

Photo left - Extract from Rust's Fire Brigade Incident Book, which shows the record of the fire on the Brig 'Highland Chief'.

 

 

 

 

 

The fire engines were ‘exercised’ on the second Monday in March, June, September and December. On one occasion they could not be ‘proved’, as there was no water in the canal. The problem of a readily available was eased with the provision of pumped water from Marham in 1865. However, there were initial teething problems as highlighted when Richard Young’s brig the ‘Highland Chief’ caught fire in 1868 and some time was spent fixing the hoses to the nearest hydrant, caused by the Brigade being ‘ignorant of the working’. They were subsequently allowed to practice with the hydrants on a regular basis.

The Brigade dealt with fires both in the Town and further afield, the causes of which ranged from carelessly placed candles, accidents with ‘lucifer’ matches (sometimes maliciously) and out of control domestic fires.

After nineteen years as Superintendent, Rust resigned his position. He was succeeded by James Archer, one of the ‘conductors’, who was to hold the post until the turn of the century. Rust’s resignation was reported in the Wisbech Advertiser who declared themselves ‘not at all surprised, for the position must be as bad as that of a doctor, liable to be called out at all hours of the night, although not nearly as profitable, with the chance of being cremated at some time or other’!

Rust began to move more and more into public life. He became a member of the School Board (1870), was one of the first directors of the Wisbech & Isle of Ely Permanent Benefits Building Society (1872) and was appointed Governor of the Grammar School (1883-93). In 1876, was elected Borough councillor for the North Ward (1876), a seat he held for over twenty years and was later elected as an Alderman (1897).

In 1882 W.M. Rust was elected as Mayor of the Borough of Wisbech, in succession to Thomas Pattrick. On assuming the mayoral robes, he remarked ‘it was a nice garment, but he was afraid Mr. Pattrick had left the pockets empty’. Rust was to hold the position for the next two years during which the Wisbech & Upwell Tramway was built but an attempt to develop the port, which he vigorously promoted, failed in Parliament.

However, one memorable achievement of his Mayoralty was the acquisition by the Borough of the splendid gold chain and badge of office worn to this day by Mayors of Wisbech. Rust invited all past Mayors or their families to contribute three guineas towards a link as a memorial of their year in office. The central link would commemorate Town Clerks and the beautiful enamelled badge, bearing the common seal of the borough, was provided by the Treasurer, Mr. Algernon Peckover. In 1883 Rust was presented with this new chain-of-office on his re-election as Mayor.

Rust also represented the Castle Division of Wisbech on the Isle of Ely County Council, was churchwarden at Wisbech St. Peter’s church for over a quarter of a century, a JP from 1892 until his death and a Trustee of the North Cambridgeshire Cottage Hospital.

After his retirement from business in 1897, Rust moved to Monica Road (now St. Augustine Road) where he lived until his death in 1903. He was buried in King’s Walk Cemetery with his son Martin Albert, and beside his first wife Augusta. The reports of his funeral in the local newspapers bear witness to the high regard in which he was held by his family, friends, colleagues and the town.