John Wilhelm Rowntree

Who was John Wilhelm Rowntree?

John Wilhelm Rowntree was a chocolate and confectionery manufacturer and Quaker religious activist and reformer.

He was born September 4, 1868 in York, the eldest son of Joseph Rowntree and his second wife, Antoinette Seebohm.

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, 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 March 9, 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 Sep 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 Nov 1917 in the Ypres Salient.