Description:
A large, two-handled, silver gilt trophy with a lid. The trophy is decorated with moulded foliage and animal heads. The lid displays a view of the Royal Pump Rooms, Leamington Spa, in relief and is surmounted by a winged female figure blowing a trumpet. There is an inscription within a cartouche and a hallmark on the trophy. The inscription reads 'Presented/ To/ John Haddon Esq.re/ By The Shareholders In The Leamington/ Pump Room Company/ In Grateful Recognition Of His Services/ As Chairman/ 1869'.
John Haddon was born in 1807 in the village of Offchurch. He was apprenticed to a draper as a young man and became a partner to Woodhouse of Bath Street, Leamington Spa. It was through Woodhouse that he became connected with Lewis and Allenby who started a brewery in Leamington of which Haddon became the head. He was, for forty years, the Director of Leamington Priors and Warwickshire Banking Company which he also helped to found. He was also a member of the Local Board, a Trustee of the Jephson Gardens and a member of the Managing Committee of the Royal Pump Rooms. When Leamington became a municipal borough Haddon resisted encouragement to become the first Mayor of the town or to sit on the Town Council. It was speculated in his obituary that this was because he knew he was ill and perhaps did not have long to live. According to his obituary in the Leamington Courier, Haddon was an active and benevolent member of the community. 'We have learned to associate John Haddon with all that is courteous, gentle, and honourable,' it read, 'there was no public movement in which his voice and counsel were not welcomed and respected, no private charity in which his hand and purse were not ready to do what his heart prompted.'