Name John Rowntree Role Business person | Education Bootham School | |
Died March 9, 1905, New York, United States Books A history of the adult school movement | ||
John Wilhelm Rowntree (4 September 1868 – 9 March 1905) was a chocolate and confectionery manufacturer and Quaker religious activist and reformer.
He was born on 4 September 1868 in York, the eldest son of Joseph Rowntree (1836–1925) and his second wife, Antoinette Seebohm (1846–1924).
He was educated at Bootham School, York and Oliver's Mount School, Scarborough.
He was a successful business man, vastly expanding the already successful family chocolate business. He played a large part in enabling the Religious Society of Friends to incorporate an understanding of modern science (such as the theory of evolution), modern biblical criticism, and the social meaning of Jesus's teaching into their belief systems. He helped establish Woodbrooke, the Quaker study centre in Bournville, Birmingham.
He died on 9 March 1905 in New York.
His only son Lawrence was killed in action during the Great War. Originally a volunteer orderly with the Friends Ambulance at Dunkirk, he subsequently joined the British Army and fought in the first tank action at Flers-Courcellette on 15 September 1916 as a member of the crew of HMLS Creme-de-Menthe. He was later commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery and was killed on 25 November 1917 in the Ypres Salient.