Samson Fox

Samson Fox, JP (11 July 1838 – 24 October 1903) was an English engineer, industrialist and philanthropist. He was elected Mayor of Harrogate in Yorkshire and the building of the Royal College of Music in London was funded largely by Fox.

Life and career

Samson Fox was born at Bowling, Bradford, Yorkshire, the son of Jonas Fox, a mill worker, by his marriage to Sarah Pearson, and the family shortly afterwards moved to live and work in nearby Leeds. At the age of eight Fox started work in a textile mill and at fifteen he became an apprentice in a toolmaking and foundry company.

In 1887, Fox applied his knowledge and experience in forging metal to building forged pressed iron railway undercarriages and trucks. His railway trucks could support 120 tons without failing, were guaranteed for five years, and were soon being sold in Argentina, Belgium, British India, Japan, and Spain, in addition to England. North America however was the world's biggest market, so in 1888 Fox went to the United States, where he made a deal with the famous railway salesman Diamond Jim Brady for Brady to sell American-made Fox trucks in America and to remit one third of the sale price back to Fox as commission. Brady's sales techniques soon succeeded, and in 1888 the Fox Solid Pressed Steel Company was incorporated to manufacture the trucks in Joliet, Illinois.

Fox won a number of awards for his work, including the Royal Society of Arts gold medal for his corrugated boiler flue and the French Legion of Honour. He provided Harrogate with its first steam fire engine, built the Grove Road School opposite his home, funded the Royal Hall, and provided affordable social housing. He also built a water gas plant to provide the main street of Harrogate with some of the earliest street lighting. He was a JP (Justice of the Peace) for both Leeds and Harrogate.

Around 1890, he invited the Croatian artist Vlaho Bukovac to stay at Grove House and paint a series of family portraits. He collected many of Bukovac's other paintings but the collection was dispersed in an auction in 1911. The most important of all his purchases was the huge 'Suffer the Little Children', shown at the Paris Salon in 1888, which the Fox family later presented to St. Robert's church in Harrogate.

In 1892 and 1894, in two donations, Fox provided most of the funds (£45,000, ) to build the Royal College of Music in Prince Consort Road, Westminster, and a bust of him has a prominent place in the entrance hall. King Edward VII sent Harrogate a telegram of condolence. He left an estate valued at £156,722 (equivalent to £ in ).

In 1891 Samson Fox was granted Arms by the College of Arms, London:

Arms: Argent a representation of a corrugated boiler-flue fesseways proper between two foxes courant Gules each holding in their mouth a trefoil slipped Vert. at The Royal Hall in Harrogate on 23 September 2022. It was directed by Sian Murray and produced by sisters Ann and Clair Challenor-Chadwick at Cause UK Public Relations. The premier was attended by Freddie Fox and his mother Joanna David. and raised money for the Royal Hall Restoration Trust in memory of historian Malcolm Neesam.

Edward Fox and Freddie Fox were also advisors to the project.