Shaftesbury: The Poor Man's Earl

by John Charles Pollock

1st Hodder & Stoughton 1985 trade edition paperback fine condition In stock shipped from our UK warehouse

Genres: Biography, History

194 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

The late John Pollock, an award-winning biographer, had a flair for telling a dramatic story. He used this talent to write many biographies including ones on D. L. Moody and Major General Sir Henry Havelock.

Reviews

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. It completely blew my hair back what one man managed to achieve, be part of, take on in his lifetime. I bought this book years ago, it's been gathering dust for possibly two decades. I regret not having read it sooner.

Lord (Anthony) Ashley (Cooper), the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, (the poor man's earl) born in 1801, died in 1884. Many people know about Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, Florence Nightingales and so on, but the Earl of Shaftesbury, I had never heard of him.

Starting with putting an end to the use and abuse of chimney sweeps, slavery of women and children in the UK mines, care of the insane, infirm, ensuring clean water, health care and more, fighting for the rights and dignity of all people.

"Ashley could not forget the human misery which was the price of Britain's rapidly expanding industrial wealth" (1830s)

"The dangerous classes in England are not the people. The dangerous classes are the lazy ecclesiastics of whom there are thousands, and the rich who do no good with their money."

"In 1848 the Ragged Schools proved their worth. Even Ashley dreaded a blood-bath in England when the fall of Louis Phillippe, the French King, sparked of the 'Year of Revolutions' across Europe. London prepared for Chartist riots ... No revolution shook England, and Ashley always gave a large share of the credit to the past ten years' work of missionaries and clergy in the slums; the realm was saved by 'the influence of the Word of God'. Had there been ... no London City Mission, Ragged Schools or Church Pastoral Aid, England would have suffered 'political trouble and convulsion' like the rest of Europe where buildings burned, men and women died and sovereigns lost their crowns."

His impact on British society can probably best be summed up - in the list at the back of the book - of 'Shaftesbury's Concerns a Century Later':

Organisations of which he was Founder or President
Shaftesbury Society, formerly the Ragged School Union
Shaftesbury Homes and Arethusa, formerly National Refuges & Training Ships
Church Pastoral Aid Society, Mission at Home

British & Foreign Bible Society
Church's Ministry Among the Jews
Dean Close School
John Groom's Association for the Disabled
London City Mission
Missions to Seamean
Open Air Mission
Protestant Alliance
Young Men's Christian Association
Young Women's Christian Association

Organisation's of which he was vice-president or patron:
Aged Pilgrim's Friend Society
Baptist Missionary Society
Barnardo's
Christian Evidence Society
Church Missionary Society
Curates Augmentation Fund
Intercontinental Church Society
Lord's Day Observance Society
National Anti-Vivisection Society
National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
North London Homes for the Blind
Railway Mission
Royal Association in Aid of the Deaf and Dumb
Royal Hospital and Home for Incurables
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Seamen's Hospital Society
South American Missionary Society
Spurgeon's Homes
Tower Hamlets Mission
United Kingdom Alliance

[Norman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that has been on my shelves for 39 years, I'm ashamed to say! This biography focuses on Shaftesbury's many social achievements and emphasises his Christian faith being his motivation. I have no problem with this as Wikipedia has mostly ignored it and this adds a bit of balance to my understanding of the man and his times.
A biography, I feel, should give the reader a sense of the person and John Pollock does just that. We learn of the faith, the kindness, the insight and the depression and feelings of worthlessness. It explains how he used his diaries to rant, and show his frustration, whilst in public he would be polite and forceful. The narrative also illuminates his many good deeds and how well loved he was by the poor.
A great book to introduce a character whose work still exists in the 21st century

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was not familiar with Shaftesbury but a friend sent me this brief booklet reviewing his life and I read it today. I was shocked at the extent of this man's influence, considering that I had never heard his name. He was responsible with a great deal of social reform in England, from child labor to public health. I am now going to look for a more robust bio of him. This one is only 26 pages and well worth reading.