Notes for Ewart Agnew BODDINGTON JP DL Served as President of the Institute of Brewing (1972-74)
Chairman of the Brewers Society (1984-85)
High Sheriff of Cheshire (1978–79)
Deputy Lieutenant for Cheshire (1993 to his death). [323]
I, Tim Boddington (Webmaster), and my wife moved to live near to Macclesfield in Cheshire in 1975. We soon discovered that we had landed well and truly in Brewery Boddington (as we referred to them) territory, with a Boddington pub on every other corner. I already knew that I almost certainly had no family connection with them. Whenever we met someone new, a common occurrence when one has just moved to a new area, the first question was invariably whether we were part of the brewing family. After some years of this, one night we decided that instead of answering along the lines of ″No, shame isn′t it!″ we would answer ″No, we don′t talk about that side of the family.″ The very next morning I was on the train to London, and having finished reading my Waterways World magazine, I put it down on the table. Almost immediately the gentleman next to me said ″Excuse me asking but I see your name on the magazine ...″ ah I thought, an opportunity to test the new response, ″... do you have any shares in the brewery?″ What?! ″I′m Ewart Boddington, chairman of the brewery.″ There was no way I could tell him how hilarious that conversation was! I met Ewart once more, about five years later. I boarded a train at Euston and took the first vacant seat. There was already a gentleman sitting at the opposite seat. As I sat down I thought he looked familiar, and soon realised that it was Ewart. So I enquired ″It′s Mr Ewart Boddington isn′t it?″ and presented my card. He looked very sternly at the card, equally so at me, then again at the card, and again at me. After a couple of seconds while I wondered whether I had made an embarrassing mistake he raised his head to speak ″You′re having me on!″ he exclaimed loudly, ensuring that half the carriage were now taking an interest! ″No″ said I, ″That′s who I am, but we are not related.″ At which point Ewart subsided back into his papers and, very sadly, we never exchanged another word. [Webmaster]
Sources |
Wikipedia: Ewart Agnew Boddington
