Charles Paxton Markham
Charles Paxton Markham (c1865-1926) of the Staveley Coal and Iron Co, son of Charles Markham, Chairman of Staveley Coal and Iron Co and of the Park Gate Iron and Steel Co. Also Managing Director of Main Colliery Co, Newstead Colliery Co, Bullcroft Main Collery Co, also a director of many other coal companies.
Eldest son of Charles Markham, of Tapton House, Chesterfield and grand-son of Sir Joseph Paxton, the famous designer of the Crystal Palace and of the gardens of Chatsworth.
1865 Born
He was educated privately and from his earliest manhood devoted himself to the development of the iron, steel, coal and engineering industries.
1926 29th June died at home in Chesterfield.
1926 Obituary [1]
'The death of Mr Charles Markham occurred suddenly at his home, Ringwood Hall, near Chesterfield, on Tuesday June 29th, from heart failure. His health had for some time past occasioned anxiety, and he had but recently returned from a voyage to South Africa, undertaken on the advice of his doctor. He was sixty-one years of age.
Charles Paxton Markham was a man of marked and virile personality. He was an engineer of exceptional ability, a brilliant organiser, and had a mind specially qualified to seize upon the essentials of a problem, and to discard all extraneous considerations. He enjoyed, moreover, a reputation for fearless and independent thought and action, for honesty of purpose, and for a sense of fair-play. One of the largest employers of labour in the country, he had in an unusual degree both sympathy and understanding for his employees, by whom he was trusted because he never failed them......'[more]
1927 Obituary [2]
CHARLES PAXTON MARKHAM had a long connexion with the Staveley Coal and Iron Company and its associated companies, of which he became managing director in 1915.
He was educated at Uppingham and served an eight years' apprenticeship with his father at Staveley. For twenty-five years he was managing director of Messrs. Markham and Company.
One of his first acts on taking control of the Staveley Company was to purchase the Broad Oaks engineering works at Chesterfield. These he developed beyond recognition and they now manufacture a considerable proportion of the colliery winding engines and head-gears used in this country. He also supervised the building of the Devonshire Works at Staveley, and extended the chemical side of the firm's activities.
Mr. Markham's death occurred on 29th June 1926 at the age of sixty-one years.
He became a Member of the Institution in 1914.
1926 Obituary [3]
CHARLES PAXTON MARKHAM, Member of Council, died suddenly at his residence on June 29, 1926.
He was the eldest son of the late Mr. Charles Markham of Tapton House, and was a grandson of Joseph Paxton. He held a very important position in the mining industry, and enjoyed a considerable reputation on account of his independence of outlook on industrial questions. He was a strong individualist, and always remained outside the Coal Owners' Association, notwithstanding that he was associated with the management of a large number of collieries in the Nottingham and Derbyshire area.
He was of a very enterprising nature and endued with progressive ideas, both as regards the social welfare of the workers in his undertakings and the equipment of his pits and works. In his latter years most of his time and energies were devoted to the development of the Staveley Coal and Iron Co., Ltd. He took a considerable interest in local affairs, having been High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1913-14, twice Chairman of Quarter Sessions, and three times Mayor of Chesterfield.
A few years ago he presented Tapton House and Park to the town of Chesterfield, and his benefactions in many directions were on a princely scale. Mr. Markham was elected a member of the Institute in 1890, and a Member of Council in 1923. His hospitable entertainment of the members at Parkgate and Staveley on the occasion of the Autumn Meeting of the Institute at York will still be within the recollection of many who attended that meeting.