Lives in Cricket No 19 - Frank Sugg

including Ranji, Archie MacLaren and the Australians M.A.Noble and W.W.Armstrong. In 1912, the founding brothers decided the business had reached a stage where conversion into a public limited liability company would be desirable. This led to a disagreement within the family. Frank’s son, Frank Reginald, and Walter’s son, Hubert Henri Bell (known as Bert) were shareholders in the business. Bert, a man remembered in the family for his trenchant views, disagreed with the proposal and the outcome was that he bought the Sheffield, Nottingham and Hull branches from Frank Sugg Ltd and started a business of his own as HHB Sugg Ltd, a private company incorporated on 3 March 1913 and trading as Sugg Sports, with the Sheffield Snig Hill branch as its headquarters. Frank Sugg Ltd contributed £15,000 by taking up debentures in the new business but the suspicion is that relations between the two businesses, both trading under the Sugg name, were less than warm. The decision to hive off part of the Frank Sugg Ltd business, and the outbreak of the First World War with a consequent slackening of trade in the sports goods business, meant that any thoughts of conversion into a public company were put on ice. A public-spirited and patriotic man, Frank, aged 52 when the war started, volunteered for military service during which he assisted in the running of prisoner-of-war camps in the Liverpool area. Gilbert Jessop gave up the chairmanship during the war while Frank’s Business Career 108 The ‘Lancashire Witch’ was one of Sugg’s better-known patented bats, retailing here at the 2011 equivalent of £50.