dissenting Congregationalist family who had a great tradition of good works and social justice: his grandparents were said to have invited the poor in off the street to dine. His basic education came from a staymaker’s wife in Cumbria after which he moved to Sheffield at the age of 14 then his father died, as the eldest child still living at home, he was responsible for his mother and 5 younger children living in four small rooms. He said at that point he understood what it was to struggle to make ends meet and he knew the price of bread, and this was one of the things that gave him an empathy, he said, with the working class.

He went to evening and early morning classes to educate himselfat the People’s College in Sheffield and he worked briefly in a brewery and then as a lawyer’s clerk. In fact here [shows image on projection screen], in this daguerreotype he is about 21, when he was thought to be charismatic as a speaker in the local Liberal Club â€“ I think he’s quite handsome underneath all the whiskers â€“ a surprising image. Then he followed his coal merchant brother to London to make his career there. He wasn’t entirely successful â€“ he was briefly bankrupt â€“ but ultimately he made his fortune, partly because he had a habit of inventing things and on this occasion he invented a sloping grill for unloading coal that filtered out the worthless dust at the bottom of the sack; his coal