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John Henry Barlow (1855 – 1924) was widely referred to as ‘The outstanding Quaker statesman of his generation'.〔(Article in the Birmingham Post and Rail ), 2014〕 He was also an outstanding ambassador for peace during the war years and as clerk of London Yearly Meeting for seven crucial years was the person, who more than anyone held the Society together at a taxing moment in its history. He was one of the first members of the Friends' Ambulance Unit. He secured the exemption clause in the Military Service Act 1916 for people to opt out of conscription on grounds of conscience. He was the first Secretary and general manager of the Bournville Village Trust, serving the trust for 23 years. In 1920 he lead a delegation to Ireland to look into the Black and Tans atrocities. == Family == Descended from two old Quaker families, John Henry was born in Edinburgh in 1855 the son of Professor John Barlow of the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, Edinburgh University and his wife Eliza Nicholson. His Father, one of the most respected scientists of his generation, died tragically young at the age of 40 in 1856 when JHB was hardly a year old and the money that he had left to provide for his wife and family, was mostly lost due to the almost simultaneous collapse of The Glasgow Bank and the Cornish tin mine in which he had invested and as there was no limited liability then, Eliza Barlow was left in a bad way financially. Consequently he was brought up by his Mother and the assistance of Quaker cousins first in Edinburgh and later in Carlisle where she moved to be with her sister Mary, who had married Jonathan Carr, the founder of Carr’s Biscuits. He went to the Quaker School, Stramongate in Kendal but because of the family’s financial situation, he was not able to continue to University and study medicine as he would have liked to do, to follow in his father’s footsteps. He had to help to augment the family finances and joined The Clydesdale Bank, where he did well and the extra income enabled the family to prosper and by 1881 they had moved to Murrell Hill Cottage in Carlisle, where Eliza Barlow was to remain till she died in 1894. As he grew older, John Henry devoted more and more time to good causes, often giving talks to the Temperance League with his cousins Bertram and Theodore Carr. His name soon became well known all over the city for the great social work he did among the poor communities especially in Willow Holme, a run down area of the City. In 1889 he left the Bank to become secretary of Carr’s Biscuits where he got to know another Quaker, Ernest Hutchinson, who had recently moved to Carlisle to a house in Goshen Road, to become manager of Carr’s. Ernest had recently married Louie Cash and before long John Henry met her sister Mabel Cash whom he subsequently married in 1895. Ernest and John Henry decided to revive the good work that the Carr’s eldest son, Henry had begun but which had by then somewhat languished. Mabel Barlow wrote in the memoir of her husband, that she wrote for their children in 1927, that Willow Holme “was a dark and dangerous neighbourhood... with drunken brawls and horrible fights between women as well as men; terrified shrieks issued as wife or child was being ill-treated...” but the love and energy of these two along with Lou Hutchinson produced great results. Other Quakers came and helped including their cousin, Richard Cadbury from the chocolate firm and it was here that many young people received their first lessons in reading and writing; there was also a club room for the boys where John Henry used to go and read stories and organise games for them. Eventually, Richard and his brother George Cadbury, impressed by the work he was doing in Carlisle invited him in 1900, to become the first manager of the newly formed Bournville Village Trust (BVT), the experiment in housing that he eventually established with John Henry’s help, to house the poor from the city of Birmingham as well as those who worked at the Cadbury factory. This was to prove his life’s work and he remained in Birmingham until he died in 1924, a task carried on by his youngest son F. Ralph Barlow. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Henry Barlow」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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