The Father of the Red Triangle; the Life of Sir George Williams, Founder Of
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K THE FATHER OF THE RED TRIANGLE THE LIFE OF SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS 3S FOUNDER OF THE YM.CA SE if^mm^. THE FATHER OF THE RED TRIANGLE Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/fatherofredtrianOOhoddrich ^yC\y<S^^--^C^ THE FATHER OF THE RED TRIANGLE THE LIFE OF SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS Founder of the Y.M.CA. BY J. E. HODDER WILLIAMS ILLUSTRATED HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO 1918 Y. L. L. Y. J. E. H. W. Firtt ituhlMhed as " The Life of Sir Oeorge Williams " in 1906 TO THE HEROIC MEMORY OP LIEUTENANT GORDON WILLIAMS, M.V.O. IST BATT. ARTISTS RIFLES A GRANDSON OF THE FATHER OF THE RED TRIANGLE AND A VERY HAPPY WARRIOR WHO WAS KILLED ON THE FIELD OF HONOUR ON OCTOBER 30, 1917 41S998 ; ; ; ' * A whole Christ for my salvation A whole Bible for my staff A whole Church for my fellowship A whole world for my parish." *' The course of this^ man's life had been very simple and yet crowded with events and with manifold activity. The element of his energy was an indestructible faith in God, and in an assistance flowing immediately from Him." " For whom thanks be to our Lord Jesus Christ." PREFACE WHAT a radiance must come upon the face of George Williams in that Place pre- pared for him and his old-time friends as he watches the hundreds of thousands of young men who pass hourly into the Y.M.CA. huts and tents and dug-outs which are as far-flung as the Allied battle line, stretching from every homeland across every sea. These are his " beloved young men," these buildings, marked with the Red Triangle, are Ms works that follow him. It would be a mockery to doubt his pleasure over the prosperity of the work of his hands—^for he was the master builder. He builded better than he ever knew or, optimist that he was, ever could dream. This is not the place to attempt to tell of the work of the Y.M.CA. during the war, of the wonder of that Association which shares with the Red Cross the honour of being the greatest voluntary organization known to history, which shares with it too, the splendid triumph of having exalted Christianity and the Cross before the eyes of a world that had almost lost sight of both in the foul fog of a Prussian-made materialism. X SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS So vast and widespread have become the activities of the Y.M.C.A. that thousands to whom those letters are a daily blessing and by whom they are daily blessed, know nothing of the story of the young man from the country who, m an upper room in the heart of the City, founded the Association of twelve from which, link by link, without a single break in the chain, has grown a work for young men to which the world pays homage. It is impossible to imagine what would have happened to our soldiers, sailors, and muni- tion makers, to those who are winning the war for us, had there been no Y.M.C.A. to care for and comfort and cheer them. That statement is a commonplace among the greatest men in all English-speaking lands ; a universally admitted fact. This new edition of the Life of the Father of the Red Triangle has been prepared in answer to many requests from those of the later genera- tion who knew not George Williams. In reading it again after twelve years I have found little that could profitably be changed. It comes from a bygone age, it tells of a world that now belongs to the history of our past, it is a page torn from the records of life that can never be again. As such I let it stand, asking only that the reader remember that it was written under a light that now seems very dim and shadowy and far away. It answers still, it seems to me, the question which some of the older generation have asked, and rightly asked—What would George Williams, the SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS xi founder, and to the end of his long life the very heart and soul of the Young Men's Christian Association, have thought of the way in which his work has been enlarged on every side, of the manner in which it has entered into every phase of usefulness for young men ? However elaborate and many-sided the work of the Y.M.C.A. may be or may become, it is built on the broad and firm foundation he laid and his ambitions for his Master's work knew no bounds of time or space. Throughout his life he preached unceasingly the power of individual work for individual men, the supreme importance of bringing religion into most intimate personal touch with the daily conflict. That conflict in his time was the struggle of business life ; now it is fiercer and more bitter war. But if you will read of how George Williams, from his early days, looked out upon the world as a general surveying a crowded battleground, as one before whom, very really and literally, the forces of good and evil, of Christ and Satan, were daily and hourly engaged in deadly battle, you will understand how naturally the Association he founded adapted itself to meet the needs of the days of war. George Williams spent himself, all he had and was, in marshalling, strengthening, heartening Christian young men that they might overcome the foe ; a master of religious strategy and tactics, he realized that every means must be xii SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS taken to protect his, Christ's, army against the assaults of the enemy and to arm men physically, mentally, morally for the fight—and so it was that the readiness of the Y.M.C.A. to undertake the million cares, to face the unnum- bered problems of the world war was not the miraculous inspiration of a moment but just the glorious working out of the plans designed so many years before by the Father of the Red Triangle. J. E. HoDDER Williams. CONTENTS PAGE ^ PREFACE . ix CHAPTER I THE SOIL AND THE CITY . .1 CHAPTER II THE SPIRITUAL HOMELAND AND THE FATHERS IN CHRIST . .17 CHAPTER III A YOUNG MAN FROM THE COUNTRY . 38 CHAPTER IV THE WORLD AND A YOUNG MAN . 57 CHAPTER V THE UPPER ROOM IN ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD . 82 CHAPTER VI THE EARLY DAYS OF THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION . .110 Xiii xiv SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS CHAPTER VII PAGE THE WORLD-WIDE GROWTH .... 131 CHAPTER VIII THE CRITICAL TEARS . 161 CHAPTER IX THE TEARS OF PROGRESS . .174 CHAPTER X THE RELIGION OF A SUCCESSFUL MERCHANT. 204 CHAPTER XI THE TEARS OF TRIUMPH .... 233 CHAPTER XII FROM JUBILEE TO JUBILEE .... 252 CHAPTER XIII BEST ....... 266 CHAPTER XIV ' THE MASTER BUILDER . 280 ILLUSTRATIONS SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS . Frontispiece TACING PAGE ASHWAY FARM, NEAR DULVERTON, THE BIRTHPLACE OF SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS . .2 THE OLD OPEN FIREPLACE IN THE KITCHEN AT SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS'S BIRTHPLACE . .16 SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS'S HOMELAND . .32 A view from the window of the farm on the hill THE VILLAGE STREET AT DULVERTON . .48 Showing the Church where Sir George Williams was bap- tized, and the house where he first went to school THE MOTHER OF SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS . 64 From a coloured miniature in the possession of the late Amos Williams, Esq. A FACSIMILE OF THE LETTER ANNOUNCING THE FORMATION OF THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. .96 SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS AS A YOUNG MAN . .112 The earliest known photograph, taken soon after he entered Messrs. Hitchcock & Rogers's THE ORIGINAL CARD OF MEMBERSHIP OF THE YOUNG men's CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION . .112 XV xvi SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS PACIKG PAGE HELEN HITCHCOCK (lADY WILLIAMS) AND SIB GEORGE WILLIAMS (at the AGE OP THIRTY-TWO) . 160 From photographs taken at the time of their marriage SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS . 166 From a photograph taken about 1870 SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS IN 1876 . 176 SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS AT THE AGE OF SIXTY . 176 EXETER HALL . ^ . 192 Opened as the headquarters of the Young Men's Christian Association on March 29, 1881 SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS . ... 208 From a photograph taken soon after the opening of Exeter Hall as the Headquarters of the Young Men's Christian Association SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS ADDRESSING A MEETING OF CHILDREN ON THE SAl^DS AT FILEY, AUGUST 19, 1901, WHEN IN HIS EIGHTY-FIRST YEAR . v . 214 SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS IN COURT DRESS . 234 Photographed on the day he received the honour of knight- hood from Queen Victoria THE FUNERAL OF SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS AT ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, NOVEMBER 14, 1905 . 278 THE LAST PHOTOGRAPH OF SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS . 282 CHAPTER I THE SOIL AND THE CITY they turned the corner and the spire of ASBridgwater Church rose into view against the evening sky, the boy's heart beat fast. They had come \sdthin sight of the end of their journej'-. And at the journey's end was the beginning of the world. It had been a long ride. Father and son had started in the moorland mist of the early morning from the home hidden among the hills some four miles above Dulverton. They had made their way slowly, for roads were bad in those days, along the narrow cart-track which leads from the farmhouse to the rough country lane, with its treacherous borders of ditch and gully.