George Alfred Christopher – The Man Behind the Christopher Home
For generations of Wiganers, the Christopher Home has been a familiar name at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary. Many people will have visited it, worked there or simply passed the building on Wigan Lane without ever wondering who “Christopher” was.
Behind the name lies the story of George Alfred Christopher, a mining engineer who rose from relatively modest beginnings to become one of Wigan's most generous benefactors.
During the 1930s, he gave land for the development of college playing fields and provided the remarkable sum of £31,000 towards the construction of the Christopher Private Patients' Home.
His contribution to Wigan was eventually recognised when he was made a Freeman of the Borough.
An Aspull Carpenter's Son
George Alfred Christopher was born in 1868 and baptised at St David's Church, Haigh, on 27 September 1868. He was the son of Richard and Elizabeth Christopher of Aspull, and his father's occupation was recorded as a carpenter.
There was little in those beginnings to suggest that the young George would one day possess sufficient wealth to make gifts worth many thousands of pounds to Wigan's institutions.
Education appears to have provided his route into professional life. Christopher became a student of Wigan Mining and Technical College, an institution which played an important role in providing the scientific and technical education required by Wigan's coal-mining and engineering industries.
Christopher subsequently became a mining engineer. Although the full story of his professional career has yet to be uncovered, by the beginning of the twentieth century the carpenter's son from Aspull had clearly become a successful and prosperous professional man.
In 1908, Christopher purchased The Mount, 38 Bridgeman Terrace, for £750. The substantial house, built around the turn of the century, became his Wigan home.
The building survives today and was later occupied by Wigan Bridge Club and is now the home of estate agent, Fazakerly Sharpe
Christopher was also involved in the social and sporting life of the town. In 1924, he served as Captain of Wigan Golf Club.
But it was during the following decade that his name became associated with acts of generosity on a much greater scale.
Giving Something Back to His Old College.
One institution Christopher certainly did not forget was the college at which he had once studied.
By the beginning of the 1930s, Wigan Mining and Technical College needed permanent playing fields. The college had been renting Westwood Athletic Ground, but the arrangement was unsatisfactory. Its governors wanted the college to have sporting facilities of its own, but these were difficult economic times and progress was slow.
Then Christopher stepped forward.
On Founders' Day, 23 November 1934, it was announced that the former student had presented the college with eleven acres of freehold land at Standish Lower Ground for conversion into playing fields.
The formal conveyance was completed the following month. Christopher was not simply a wealthy former pupil making a donation from a distance. He maintained a close association with the college and became Vice-Chairman of its Governing Body.
The land required considerable work before students could use it. It had to be levelled, drained and fenced, while facilities were developed for cricket and tennis, and by May 1936, the new ground was ready.
At the opening, Christopher marked the occasion in an appropriately sporting fashion. The former student and benefactor bowled the first cricket ball to J. T. Gee, Chairman of the Governing Body.
Christopher's original gift also provided an opportunity for the college to acquire a further sixteen acres. The option was eventually taken up, considerably increasing the size of the grounds.
In June 1938, the governors decided that the playing fields should carry the name of the man whose generosity had made them possible. They became Christopher Park.
It must have been a satisfying moment for Christopher. The young man who had once entered Wigan Mining and Technical College as a student had returned many years later as one of its governors and greatest supporters.
His most significant gift to Wigan, however, was associated with another institution.
The Christopher Home
The Royal Albert Edward Infirmary had served Wigan since the nineteenth century and was one of the town's most important institutions.
During the 1930s, plans were developed for the construction of a purpose-built home for private patients. Christopher became its great benefactor. He provided the extraordinary sum of £31,000 towards the cost of constructing the new building.
It was an enormous gift for the period and demonstrated both the scale of Christopher's wealth and his willingness to use it for the benefit of the town.
The resulting building would become the Christopher Private Patients' Home.
Christopher's involvement appears to have extended beyond simply providing a cheque. In 1934 he was involved in arrangements concerning Reservoir Meadow, with the intention that the land should subsequently be transferred by deed of gift to the trustees of the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary.
The substantial new building rose alongside the existing hospital buildings on Wigan Lane.
Remarkably, the occasion was captured on film and is with the North West Film Archive; George Alfred Christopher himself appears in the film.
Freeman of Wigan
By this time Wigan had already formally recognised Christopher's contribution to the town. On 19 October 1936, George Alfred Christopher was granted the Freedom of the Borough of Wigan.
It was one of the highest honours his home town could bestow and marked a remarkable personal journey. The boy, born in 1868, the son of an Aspull carpenter, had become a successful mining engineer, college governor, philanthropist and Freeman of Wigan.
The Benefactor Becomes the Patient
Christopher had only a short time to enjoy the recognition of his philanthropy; on 3 February 1939, George Alfred Christopher died at the age of 70.
There was an extraordinary poignancy about the place in which his life ended. He died in the Christopher Home. The man who had provided £31,000 towards the cost of the hospital had himself become one of its patients.
His obituary remembered him as a “well-known Wigan benefactor and Freeman of the Borough” and recalled the two great gifts with which his name had become associated – his contribution towards the Christopher Home and the playing fields given to Wigan Mining and Technical College.
His funeral took place three days later, on 6 February 1939.
Michael Nelson