Charles Arthur Mander was a managing director of Mander Brothers (a paint and varnish company) as well as being a philanthropist and manufacturer. He was born in Shropshire and read natural sciences at Cambridge. He was mayor of Wolverhampton twice, and at one point served concurrently on 65 committees.
Charles Arthur Mander, of Kilsall Hall, Tong, Shropshire, was the elder son of Charles Tertius Mander, first baronet,[4] by Mary Le Mesurier, daughter of Henry Nicholas Paint, a Member of the Dominion Parliament of Canada. He was educated at Hillbrow School in Rugby, Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read Natural Sciences. He shot in the English rifle team, and was in the winning eight for the Elcho Shield while still at Cambridge.
He served as a major[5] in the Staffordshire Yeomanry (Queen's Own Royal Regiment) in World War I, attached to the Yeomanry Mounted Division in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. He was wounded in the Third Battle of Gaza at Beersheba in 1917, and following the decisive battle of Megiddo, was one of the first to enter Damascus in triumph with General Allenby.[6] Extracts from his lively journals describing one of the last great cavalry campaigns were published in Varnished Leaves (2004).[7][8]
He was one of the best known public men of his generation in the Midlands.[9] After the war, he entered local government, standing as a Conservative member of Wolverhampton Council for 25 years, serving twice as Mayor of Wolverhampton in 1932-1933 and again in the Coronation year, 1936-1937.[10] He promoted many social service, educational and welfare organisations, founding the Good Companions youth club at Horseley Fields. He was chairman of the Borough finance committee for a generation, an alderman, and was awarded the honorary freedom of the borough.[11] A keen sportsman, he became President of Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club and was also a governor and trustee of The Royal School, Wolverhampton.
He served on over 65 committees and organisations at one time, was in demand as a public speaker on both sides of the Atlantic, chairing some of the first radio discussion programmes, notably 'Midland Parliament'.[12] Among many positions, he was Chairman of the Industrial Advisory Council, Vice-Chairman of the National Savings Committee, President of Rotary International for Britain and Ireland[13] and President of the National Federation of Associated Paint, Colour and Varnish Manufacturers of the United Kingdom (1930-1).[14] In the USA, he was adopted as Chief Red Crow, an honorary title of the Blackfoot nation in Montana,[15] where he was to give the dedication address of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, the first national park to be dedicated to world peace, on 18 June 1932.[16][17] In 1949 he caused a furore when he resigned from the presidency of the local Conservative party because he disagreed with post-war housing policy, in particular the town council's direct labour scheme for council housing.[18]
He was an active industrialist, managing director of Mander Brothers when it was a progressive company in social reform, welfare matters and labour relations, and among many initiatives was the first company in Britain to introduce the 40-hour week through an historic agreement signed and mediated by Ernest Bevin, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, in September 1932.[19][20] He succeeded his father as a director and then chairman of the prominent Queen Square Syndicate in Wolverhampton.[21]
He married in 1913 Monica, daughter of George Harding Neame, of Kent and London,[22] by whom he had three children.
He died suddenly in 1951, aged 66, when he was succeeded in the baronetcy by his only son, Charles Marcus Mander (1921–2006).[23] There is a blue plaque commemorating his contribution to the city of Wolverhampton on the front of the Magistrates’ Courts.[24]