The life of George Williams - Anniversary Review Part 3

Born The Son of a Somerset farmer, George Williams died a wealthy businessman renowned for setting up a world-wide Christian movement with more than 7,000 branches in 45 countries. With his commercial empire and a lifetime of good works behind him he had become the "last of the merchant philanthropists".  His life began humbly at Ashway Farm, Dulverton, Somerset, on October 11th, 1821. After going to school in Tiverton he returned to the family farm, but it soon became clear that he was not cut out for a life on the land. By the time he was fourteen, he was apprenticed to a draper in nearby Bridgwater. Far from showing signs of being a potential Christian leader, he said of himself:  "I entered Bridgwater a careless, thoughtless, godless, swearing young fellow." But he was soon to be converted. His apprentice's indenture agreement said that he must attend the Zion Congregational Church. Gradually he was influenced by the service and by some of his fellow apprentices, and quite suddenly, in Winter  1837, he felt he had been called by God and became a full member of the church.

George Williams as a young man

By the time he moved to London to work for drapers Hitchcock and Rogers, of St Paul's Churchyard, in 1841, he had become an enthusiastic Christian: " My heart was very warm - I was little over twenty at that time - and I asked myself, 'What can I do for these young men?' " . He began praying for certain fellow workers, invited them along to meetings and showed concern about their lives. Reports show he was tactful but persistent and enthusiastic. "Don't argue with anyone - take him to supper," was his motto. As the association took off, George Williams continued to play an important part in its growth, but he never neglected his career. He believed his faith helped him be fair, and so prosperous, in his business dealings.

George Williams in later years

He became Hitchcock's chief buyer and most trusted assistant at 26, and at 32 he became a partner in the firm, which was renamed George Hitchcock, Williams, and Co. when he married his employer's daughter Helen. On Mr. Hitchcock's deal he took over control of the company, and on his own death in 1905 he left 250.000£.

On the 50th anniversary of the YMCA's foundation in 1894, George Williams received a knighthood from Queen Victoria and the Freedom of the City of London. In April 1905, at the age of 83 and with failing health, he traveled to the 50th Jubilee of the World Alliance of the YMCA in Paris. He died seven months later, on November 6, and was buried in the crypt of the St Paul's Cathedral. A line of carriages, so long that the last one was two hours behind the first, wound its way through the streets of London to his funeral, where a choir of 50 Anglican clergymen joined a congregation of 2,600, many of the people who had been helped by the YMCA.

Taken from the 150th Anniversary Review