89: Why are bank holidays so called?

This is something I have never really thought about, but it has cropped up twice in my life this week.

The first time was when a friend and I were discussing it. We settled on the idea that it was the banks that enforced it through pressure on the government to ease workload for them.

The second time revealed the truth – not a million miles away. That second time appeared in a book I’m currently reading, much to my surprise.

It turns out that a Liberal MP from the 1870s, John Lubbock – himself a banker as well as a politician (there is also a story of him carrying bees on a train in a briefcase which was stolen from him only for the thief to abandon it once the contents made their feelings known).

Anyway, John Lubbock proposed that workers should be given more holidays and his party supported him – and so we ended up with the day off on Easter Monday, Whit Monday, the first Monday in August and Boxing Day (Good Friday and Christmas Day were traditionally observed breaks and so weren’t officially included).

However, the bank holidays got their name from Lubbock’s feeling that employers would have ignored a vague title like ‘general’ or ‘national’ holiday – only by forcing the banks to close could you ensure that no business was possible at all.

We now have eight bank holidays in England and Wales: New Year’s Day, Good Friday, the first Monday in May, the last Monday in May and Christmas Day have joined the original four. We have also had occassional bank holidays, the most recent being Friday 29th April 2011 to celebrate the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Part of me wishes we had stuck with the name suggested at the time: Lubbock Days. Maybe he would be more well known for his idea now if that were the case?