The Peel Society, based at Tamworth in Staffordshire and now in its 35th year, promotes interest in, and fuller understanding of, the career of Sir Robert Peel, who founded the modern Conservative Party. On June 8 it held its third history fair at Middleton Hall, which is close to Peel’s former country home, Drayton Manor, outside Tamworth (where Peel issued the first ever election manifesto).
The fair was attended by members of the Peel Society and other groups and societies in the area with historical interests. The Polesworth History Group, for example, displayed the information it has gathered on all those from the village who served in the First World War. Another stand had a remarkable collection of medals awarded to companions of Lawrence of Arabia during the Hejaz campaign.
Opening the fair, Alistair Lexden underlined the value of the occasion in bringing together enthusiasts working on various aspects of the past in Staffordshire. Later he gave an address on the greatness of Sir Robert Peel.
He emphasised the skill with which Peel modernised institutions of Church and State, the immense ability he brought to the conduct of national affairs during his government of 1841-6 (in which five former or future prime ministers served), the unprecedented efforts which he made to conciliate Catholic Ireland in the 1840s, and above all his work to secure greater social cohesion, particularly through his tax policies which helped lift thousands out of poverty by freeing so many of the necessities of life from duty (especially food through the repeal of the Corn Laws) and the introduction of income tax on the better off as a permanent feature of peace-time fiscal policy.