Happy 150th to York s Einstein of the welfare state yorkpress.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yorkpress.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
YORK S Joseph Rowntree Theatre is planning a day of celebrations on Wednesday to mark the 150th birthday of the theatre s founder - philanthropist and social reformer Seebohm Rowntree. There will be a fund-raising champagne tea in the afternoon, followed by a party for invited guests from the theatre and civic world in the evening. As well as being the founder of the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, Seebohm - who was the son of Joseph Rowntree - was the saviour of the Theatre Royal in the 1930s. He was also well known for his philanthropy and involvement in politics. A friend of Lloyd George, he wrote pioneering studies of poverty in York which ultimately helped pave the way for the modern welfare state.
Rowntree slavery links
Workers packing chocolates at the Rowntree factory in Haxby Road in the early 1900s. Picture: Nestlé archive/ Borthwick Institute. Inset: Joseph Rowntree in the 1890s. Picture: Explore York The Quaker philanthropist and chocolate magnate Joseph Rowntree is a man revered in York - and much further afield - for his passionate commitment to improving the lives of the less well off. In many ways, he was far ahead of his time. He set up one of the first-ever occupational pension schemes for employees at his chocolate factory, and provided workers with a library, free education, a social welfare officer, a doctor and a dentist.
1/1 AN investigation into the history of the Rowntree chocolate company has produced shocking evidence that the famously philanthropic family business may have profited from slavery and forced labour. Research by the Rowntree Society prompted partly by the Black Lives Matter movement has also uncovered allegations of racial discrimination and anti-union tactics at the firm’s South African subsidiary Wilson Rowntree during the apartheid era as recently as the early 1980s. A statement by the Rowntree Society today stressed that it had found no evidence that Rowntrees, which donated Rowntree Park to the people of York and also set up the New Earswick model village , directly owned or traded in enslaved people.
Rowntree chocolate firm may have profited from slavery thenorthernecho.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thenorthernecho.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.