Arthur Henry Kinchin
Mayor of Oxford 1960/1
Arthur Henry Kinchin (1883–1963) was born at Alvescot in Oxfordshire, but grew up in Clanfield. His parents were Henry Kinchin, a cowman who was born in Clanfield in 1856, and his wife Caroline, who was born in Filkins in the same year.
The 1891 census shows the family living in Bampton Road, Clanfield. Arthur was then 7, and his older brother, William, was already working as a ploughboy at 13. He also had two older sisters Blanche (11) and Emily (9), and two younger siblings: Thomas (5) and Beatrice (2).
Arthur left the village school at the age of 12 to become a farm worker himself. By the time of the 1901 census, however, when he was 17, he had become a coal merchant’s carrier. His older brother Thomas who was now 15 was a teamster on a farm, and he had three new younger siblings: Alfred (9), Florence (6), and Marion (1). The family still lived at Clanfield (near the Plough Inn), and Arthur’s father was now a carpenter on a farm.
According to his obituary, Kinchin worked as a miner in Wales between 1908 and 1914. But the Clanfield parish register describes him as a blacksmith when on 30 July 1910, at the age of 26, he married Maude Maria Little, aged 20, the daughter of the coal-trimmer Charles Frederick Little, at Clanfield Church. They had three children:
- Marjorie Frances Amelia Kinchin (born at Clanfield three months after the wedding on 2 November 1910, and baptised at Clanfield Church on 4 December 1910)
- A son (possibly born in Wales)
- Constance Megan Maud Kinchin (baptised at Witney St Mary Church on 17 March 1918.
The 1911 census shows Kinchin (27), his wife Maude (21) and his daughter Marjorie (5 months) living in Clanfield with Maude’s 85-year-old grandmother, Amelia Comley, again contradicting Kinchin’s obituary, which states that he returned to Oxfordshire in 1914 to become a railwayman at Witney. He was then described as a blacksmith at an agricultural instrument maker’s.
By 1919, Kinchin was living at 1 Church Street, New Hinksey (now Vicarage Road), where he remained until 1952.
Kinchin’s mother was buried at Clanfield in 1926, and his father in 1932.
In 1946 Kinchin was elected Labour representative for the South Ward, He lost his seat in 1950, but won it back in 1952. He was elected Sheriff of Oxford for 1955/6, and met Khrushchev and Marshal Bulganin on their visit to the city.
From 1954 to at least 1958, Kinchin lived at 11 Kineton Road, Oxford.
In 1958 Kinchin was elected an Alderman, and in 1960, at the age of 76, Mayor of Oxford (for 1960/1). His golden wedding fell during his mayoralty, and the city flag was flown on the Town Hall and the bells of Carfax Tower were rung.
For the last few years of his life both Kinchin and his wife lived at the home of one of their daughters in Ashlong Road, Marston, where he died on 26 May 1963. His funeral was at Oxford Crematorium.
See also:
- Oxford Times, 31 May 1963, p. 10 (obituary)
- 1891 Census: Oxford (Clanfield), 1175/95
- 1901 Census: Oxford (Clanfield), 1394/89