Cecil Tucker 1908

 

Scholarship Winner - Bookkeeping

 

When Cecil Tucker won a scholarship in Bookkeeping in 1908 he revealed some of his drive and commitment, which was later to make him one of the most successful businessmen in the town.  From a family of seven children Cecil had to leave school aged 11.  It was while he was working in an accountant’s firm that he returned to studies at night school. 

By 1914 he was managing J Buttsworth’s Midland Junction News where he soon began courting Alice, the boss’s daughter.  They married in 1915 and his new father-in-law sold him the business shortly after.  For the next 40 years Cecil ran the town’s only newsagent.  In the early days papers were delivered by horse and buggy from his two-story shop which was opposite the town hall.  In 1938 Cecil moved his business to a larger shop next to the Renown Theatre and by 1940 at the peak of his business operations, 3300 newspapers were being delivered in Midland – but by this stage from the back of a utility.

Cecil not only made money from newspapers.  He expanded into electrical appliances, and over the years sold thousands of radios to Midland people during period when radio was the most poplar form of entertainment.

Thanks to Bob Pilbeam for assistance with this story.

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