Lives in Cricket No 42 - Frank and George Mann

59 Wisden later declared: ‘No captain of an England side beyond the seas has ever been more popular than F.T. Mann.’ Soon after his return from South Africa, Frank was host at a private horse show at Mann, Crossman and Paulin’s Albion Brewery stables in the Commercial Road at Whitechapel. Those who believed that commercial motor lorries had superseded horse transport would have been surprised to see over 100 horses that were still employed in the distribution of the products from the nearby brewery, although motors were used for the longest journeys. Many awards had been gained by the firm at various Shire Horse Shows, as well as at the London Vans and Cart Horse Parades. As those winners, together with others that had not yet been shown, would be competing against each other in the future, it was thought that a private show of their own would be both helpful and interesting, as well as encouraging to the stablemen, amongst whom there was keen rivalry in the production of the best teams. In the spacious stable-yard over 60 noble specimens were paraded before a large crowd including the officers and committee of the Shire Horse Society and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. Five classes of horses were exhibited, from trotting vanners used for the smaller carts, up to geldings over 17 hands. Everyone present was delighted with the fine condition and excellent qualities of the horses competing and it was no easy task for the judges to make their awards. The selection of ‘Albion Wonder’ as the champion gelding was a very popular decision. Frank welcomed all the guests and observed that in South Africa the Shire Horse Society would not find many animals to inspect, as transport work was carried out mainly by donkeys or trek oxen, the latter of which, when their work was done for the day, often ended up on the dinner table that night. Two years later, it was ‘Albion Victor’ which won the champion gelding award at the annual Shire Horse Society Show in London, the first horse to do so for the Mann, Crossman and Paulin brewery. It was also the first of a series of champion gelding prizes won for the brewery, including ‘Lancaster’ in 1930, ‘Norman’ in 1932 and 1933, and ‘Lincoln’ in 1938. ‘Norman’ also went on to win first prize for the single-horse regular- worker class in 1934, 1935 and 1936. Between 1923 and 1939 the brewery would win 121 awards in a wide range of classes at the Shire Horse Shows in London and their horses would appear in every Cart Horse Parade in London from 1888 to 1939. In 1935, after more than half a century of participation in the affairs of the Society, Sir Edward Mann was elected president: his sons Edward John and Frank played important roles when assisting him with his determination that their horses were the finest possible advertisement for the breed and the brewery. As late as 1938 there were still more than 40,000 commercial draught-horses at work in the capital and Sir Edward declared: ‘A horse costs 17 shillings a week, and a motor vehicle about three times as much. As long as I have anything to do with my firm, I shall see that horses are used.’ In the Royal Agricultural Society Centenary Show in Windsor Great MCC in South Africa: 1922/1923