Published in Windlesora 34
©2018, WLHG
On 13th July 1927, a bronze plaque was unveiled at the Guildhall to the memory of Frederic Rainer. He was born in Queen Street, Windsor, in 1836 and was responsible for setting up the National Police Court Mission, which led to the creation of the Probation Service. The plaque is on the exterior wall of the Guildhall, facing the Corn Market, and underneath a medallion portrait of Rainer is an inscription, as seen below:
A public meeting was held at the Guildhall on 6th December 1926 to mark the Golden Jubilee of the Mission and the Windsor & Eton Express dated 10th December 1926 noted that it was ‘proposed to place a memorial to Mr Rainer in the Windsor Parish Church‘. The meeting was also reported in The Times, on 7th December 1926, and the planned memorial was mentioned. A further article in The Times, dated 5th January 1927, reported that a bronze tablet with a medallion portrait ‘is to be placed in Windsor Parish Church, and it is hoped to unveil it on the first Sunday in February.’
It is not known when, or why, the location of the proposed plaque was changed from the Parish Church to the Guildhall but it was not unveiled for a further seven months after the Jubilee due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’.
The Mayor of Windsor, Alderman Sir William Carter JP, performed the unveiling and said of Frederic Rainer:
Through the generosity of the Police Court Mission, to commemorate its jubilee, a medallion portrait is placed here to perpetuate the memory of the late Mr Frederic Rainer, who was the founder of this wonderful work, not that the Mission needs recommendation, but that it should serve to remind those who follow after of a man who served well his day and generation by using the talents entrusted to his keeping for the good of humanity. Gifted with sympathy and broad-mindedness on the brotherhood of man, he courageously sent a valuable suggestion and small subscription into the right channel, and the result is today a work of vital importance […] Whilst I express my thanks for the honour of unveiling this memorial, I will say in the name of those whose presence here endorses their appreciation of this timely recognition of a noble work, that we trust it will always rank in the high honour it deserves among the memorials for which Windsor is famous.
Among those present were the Rev JHJ Ellison, the Vicar of Windsor (and son of Canon Ellison, founder of the Church of England Temperance Society, and a former Vicar of Windsor), representatives from the Police Court Mission and several of Frederic Rainer’s sons.
An article by Pamela Marson in Windlesora No. 27 (A Windsor Pioneer) gave details of Frederic Rainer’s life and work.
Derek Hunt
Sources
- Windsor & Eton Express
- The Times
Windsor Local History Group 