Founder of the Young Men’s Christian Association, born at Dulverton, Somersetshire, on the 11th of October 1821; went to London in 1841, as junior assistant with Hitchcock and Rogers. Struck with the neglected condition of young men, he soon gathered together a company of those employed in this establishment, with the result that Mr. Hitchcock became converted, and gave them the greatest encouragement. Widening their sphere, twelve of them met on June 6, 1844, and founded the Young Men’s Christian Association, which was designated as “a society for improving the spiritual condition of young men engaged in the drapery and other trades.” He was the first treasurer of the Young Men’s Christian Association, and was always energetically devoted to its welfare and growth. He was knighted in 1894.
