A SPECIAL gift to a Furness education leader and wartime mayor has been sold at auction.

The unique item given by pupils of the Barrow Municipal Secondary School to the chairman of its governing board made a modest £65 in the sale by Bleasdales of Warwick.

The silver visiting card holder was hallmarked at Chester in 1917 and presented to Alderman Alfred Barrow at the old Munipical School at Duke Street, Barrow, which was later named in the alderman's honour.

Sir Alfred Barrow was knighted in the 1922 New Year Honours.

The North-Western Daily Mail on January 2 paid tribute to Sir Alfred and outlined why he had received the honour from King George V.

It noted: “Hail, Sir Alfred Barrow! The bestowal of knighthood upon Alderman Barrow will give entire satisfaction to the townspeople of Barrow, amongst whom he has lived and laboured so long, and whose admiration and respect he has always enjoyed."

In 1921 he had become a deputy-lieutenant for the county of Lancashire and most of his service as mayor was during the turbulent years of the First World War, when the town was packed with munitions workers from all over the North West, swelling the workforce at Vickers to above 30,000.

The mayor was twice called upon to play host to King George V on visits to Barrow during the war.

He career as a councillor had started in 1892 and by 1899 was chairman of what later became known as the borough education committee.

He was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1917.

Sir Alfred Barrow was a lawyer, qualifying in 1874 and still taking on some cases in 1922.

At that time he was president of Barrow Conservative Club and chairman of the Barrow St George’s Society and Barrow Amateur Operatic Society.

Tomorrow's, July 29, sale by Laidlaw Auctioneers at Carlisle expects £30 to £50 for an enamelled gas light fitting which came from Millom railway station (LOT 680).

The sale on Wednesday, August 2, by Tennants Auctioneers at Leyburn, North Yorkshire, hopes for £100 to £200 for a 1789 book by James Clarke (LOT 78) called A Survey of the Lakes of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire.

The same sale (LOT 77) has a pre-sale estimate of £100 to £200 on a book by Thomas Robinson called An Essay Towards a natural History of Westmorland and Cumberland.

A Lakeland painting features among the items (LOT 1180) in the August 8 sale by Fellows, of Birmingham.

It is called Calm Autumn Morning, Lake Windermere at Lowwood and is expected to sell for £50 to £80.

It is the work of Herbert Moxon Cook, who lived from 1844 to 1928.

This picture was exhibited at the 1918 Manchester Academy of Fine Arts.

There are several items with Barrow sporting links in the sale from August 8 to 9 by Sporting Memorys of Birmingham.

It should take £200 to £300 (LOT 145) to buy a programme from the 1938 Rugby League Challenge Cup final played at Wembley between Barrow and Salford.

Another £180 to £220 is expected (LOT 133) for a programme from the December 1933 rugby league match played at Whitehaven between Cumberland and Australia.

Barrow faced Birmingham in the Football League Cup in October 1962 (LOT 451) and a programme is expected to sell for £60 to £80.