Samuel Theodore Mander, 1899 - 1900 (September)
Born in 1853 to eminent Congregationalist parents, Samuel Mander (known as Theodore) received a strict religious upbringing. He studied the sciences at the University of London, Clare College, Cambridge and the University of Berlin, Germany, as well as spending a year at Dijon in France. He became the director to the Mander Brothers paint and varnish firm in 1879, and in the same year married Flora in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They had three sons and a daughter. Mander became the president of Wolverhampton Temperance Society, a lay preacher and a deacon of the Congregational Church, Queen Street. He was also involved with many organisations and charities. He was particularly interested in art and education, and began his public career as secretary to the School of Art, where he later became chairman, a position he held for the rest of his life. In 1881 he was elected to Wolverhampton Council as a Liberal representative for St Paul's Ward. He served on many committees, including the School Board, where he held the position of chairman. He became an alderman and magistrate in 1891, and was elected mayor in 1899. In April 1900 he was presented to Queen Victoria; and three months later the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George V and Mary) visited Wightwick Manor, where Mander had lived since 1888. During his term of office as mayor Mander became ill, and he subsequently died at the age of forty-seven in September 1900. The position of mayor passed back to Mander's predecessor, Price Lewis.

J Jones The Mayors of Wolverhampton Vol 2 (Whitehead Brothers, Wolverhampton)
Death Wolverhampton Chronicle. 19th September 1900.
Ponder, S. 1993 Wightwick Manor. (National Trust London)
Photograph Index – Y1/STMAN.ST