Scotter History

The Titanic was the greatest shipwreck of the 20th century, a catastrophic event that has already passed into myth and legend. On the 10th April 1912 the new liner sailed from Southhampton, England with 2,208 passengers and crew, among them was a man from Scotter. Mr Henry (Harry) Bartman Faunthorpe was born in Scotter, Lincolnshire in 1880; he worked as a commercial salesman, living in Grimsby and later in Liverpool. He boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a second class passenger together with his mistress Elizabeth Anne Wilkinson who traveled as Mrs Faunthorpe. They carried ticket number 2926 bought for £26. Mr Faunthorpe tragically died in the sinking, along with 1496 people, his and many other bodies were later recovered by the MacKay Bennett.

Scotter has its own potato, known as the ‘King Edward Potato’. It was bred by a gardener in Northumberland who called it ‘Fellside Hero’ and passed into the hands of a grower in Yorkshire and in turn a potato merchant in Manchester who having no use for it passed it onto John Butler of Scotter in Lincolnshire . He in turn purchased all the seed stocks available and multiplied the variety on 50 aces of land before renaming the variety King Edward on the advice of a potato merchant. It is claimed Butler wrote to Buckingham Palace seeking permission to name his potato after the monarch and that a reply was received granting royal assent. It is one of the oldest surviving varieties in Europe.

In 1890 Scotter lost both doctors, Robert Eminson Senior and Robert Eminson Junior, when they became ill and died as a result of attending patients in the pleuro-pneumonia epidemic of that year. Dr. Thomas Benjamin Franklin Eminson followed his father and older brother as our village doctor. His patients knew him as ‘Doctor Tommy’ and he served the community for over 50 years. Doctor Tommy was interested in local history and became a published author.  It seems that every Christmas he would write an article about the past year.  One from 1939 survives.

Scotter memorial is an obelisk of Portland Stone situated in the middle of The Green in the centre of the village. It was unveiled in 1921 to commemorate the Thirteen men who died and the eighty who served in and survived the great war. Sadly eight more names had to be added for the men who lost their lives in World War II.