Shenton, Rita

Rita Kathleen Shenton, née Chapman (1935–2004) was the Chairman of the Antiquarian Horological Society and the founder and owner of Rita Shenton Books.

Her interest in horology, shared with her husband Alan, started flourishing around 1971, when after years of working for an insurance company and raising three children, she was finally able to pursue it. In 1974 she established Rita Shenton Books, a business in second-hand trade of horological literature, which arose from the need to reduce the surplus of items in the Shentons’ ever-growing personal library. In 1976, the business expanded into publishing. That year, Rita wrote a short biography of Christopher Pinchbeck, Christopher Pinchbeck and His Family, which was followed in 1979 by Alan’s The Eureka Clock. In the meantime, they co-authored The Price Guide to Collectable Clocks 1840–1940, which became a classic reference book on the subject. Rita was also a prolific writer of articles for magazines and journals, especially Clocks, to which he became an important contributor right from its first issue in 1977, and where she published a regular column of news from the book trade.

Rita joined the Antiquarian Horological Society in 1972 and soon became involved in the organisation of its foreign tours, visiting museums and private collections and making them a great success. In 1978 she joined the Society’s Publication Committee, was involved in its programmes and lectures, and in 1986 became a full member of the Council. Ten years later she became the sixth Chairman of the AHS, the first woman to hold the post, and in 1998 she was elected a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. As a member of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, Rita was awarded a Gold Medal in 2000, 'For an Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Horology and Dedication to the Association.' She was also a prime mover in the organisation and preparations for the AHS fiftieth anniversary celebrations at Oxford in 2003. After Alan’s death later in the same year she set up the Alan Shenton Memorial Fund both to commemorate his name and to further the cause of horology of the period 1840 to 1940. Shortly before her own death in 2004 she was unanimously elected Vice President of the AHS.