# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Williams, George

​WILLIAMS, Sir GEORGE (1821–1905), founder of the Young Men's Christian Association, born at Ashway Farm, Dulverton, on 11 Oct. 1821, was youngest of the seven sons of Amos Williams, farmer, by his wife, Elizabeth. After being educated at a dame's school in Dulverton and then at Gloyn's grammar school, Tiverton, he was apprenticed in 1836 to one Holmes, a draper at Bridgwater. His parents were church people, but he came under religious impressions at the congregational chapel in Bridgwater, of which he became a member on 14 Feb. 1838. He took the ‘teetotal pledge’ in the Friends' meeting-house at Bridgwater in 1839, and was thenceforth an earnest temperance advocate, and a vigorous opponent of gambling and tobacco.
In 1841 he entered the employ of Messrs. Hitchcock & Rogers, drapers, then of Ludgate Hill, and afterwards of St. Paul's Churchyard, and was subsequently made ‘buyer’ in the drapery department. He soon became the most prominent employé in the house and was made a partner—the firm being thenceforth known as Hitchcock, Williams & Co. In 1853 he married Helen, daughter of the head of the firm, George Hitchcock.
From his arrival in London he devoted his leisure to evangelistic and temperance work. He was influenced by the severely puritanical preaching of an American evangelist, Charles G. Finney, but his views were soon modified by the more generous teaching of Thomas Binney (1798–1874) [q. v.], of the old Weigh House chapel in the City of London, where he became Sunday school secretary. He took part, too, in ragged-school work and open-air preaching. A small prayer-meeting which he early formed among his fellow-employés developed into a great organisation. At the end of 1842, when the members numbered nearly thirty, his master George Hitchcock joined Williams in establishing in the house a mutual improvement society and a young men's missionary society (1842). On 6 June 1844 twelve men, all but one being employés of Hitchcock, met in Williams's bedroom and established the Young Men's Christian Association, with the idea of extending the work to drapery houses throughout the metropolis. In October a room was taken at Radley's Hotel, Bridge Street, for the weekly meetings. Early in 1845 the first paid secretary, T. H. Tarlton, was appointed, and by Hitchcock's help premises were taken in Serjeant's Inn.
A similar institution had been started by David Nasmith [q. v.] in Glasgow as early as 1824, and branches had been opened in London, France, and America. But Williams worked independently of his predecessor's example, and his association grew on a wholly unprecedented scale. It attracted, at an early stage, men ready to work on inter-denominational lines, such as Thomas Binney [q. v.], Baptist W. Noel [q.v.] , and Samuel Morley [q. v.]. In order to emphasise the ‘mutual improvement’ side of the work, popular lectures (1845), which afterwards became known from their place of delivery as the ‘Exeter Hall lectures,’ were arranged. They were published and had an annual ​sale of 36,000 copies. Lord Shaftesbury [see Cooper, Anthony Ashley, seventh Earl of Shaftesbury], with whom Williams became closely associated, accepted the presidency in 1851. The work spread to the continent and the colonies, and in 1855 Williams was present at the first international conference of Young Men's Christian Associations held in Paris, where representatives of similar organisations in Europe and America agreed on the terms of the ‘Paris basis,’ on which a world-wide society was built up.
Up to 1864 its undenominational constitution and its sometimes narrow views about recreation and amusements hampered the association's development. But Williams's directness of purpose gradually overcame all difficulties. In 1880 he contrived the purchase of the lease of Exeter Hall, where the Association had often met, for the headquarters of the association, when there was danger of the hall becoming a place of amusement. Within forty-eight hours he raised 25,000l. giving 5000l. himself and securing four other gifts of like amount; he afterwards raised a further 20,000l. for the equipment of the building. Exeter Hall remained the association's headquarters till its demolition in 1907. During 1909–11 an enormous block of buildings was erected as a memorial to Williams for the offices of the association in Tottenham Court Road; the edifice was opened in 1912.
On Lord Shaftesbury's death, Williams was elected president (18 April 1886). In June 1894 the jubilee of the Y.M.C.A. institution was celebrated in London, when Queen Victoria knighted Williams on the recommendation of the prime minister, Lord Rosebery, and the freedom of the City of London was conferred on him. By that period there were some four hundred branches of the association in England, Ireland, and Wales, and over two hundred in Scotland, with a total membership of nearly 150,000. In America the institution struck even deeper roots. There the association had nearly 2000 branches with a membership exceeding 450,000. In Germany there were over 2000 branches with a membership of 120,000. Apart from the association's flourishing development in all the British dominions and in almost all the countries of Europe, branches had been formed in Japan, China, and Korea.
In April 1905 Williams was present at the jubilee of the world's alliance of Y.M.C.A.s in Paris. He died at Torquay, on 6 Nov. 1905, being buried in the crypt of St. Paul's, where there is a memorial.
Among numerous societies in which Williams was interested and which he generously aided with money were, apart from the Young Men's Christian Association, the Bible Society, the London City Mission, the Religious Tract Society, the Early Closing Association, and the Commercial Travellers' Christian Association.
By his marriage on 9 June 1853, with Helen Hitchcock, who survived him, he had five sons, and one daughter, who died aged nineteen. His son Mr. Howard Williams inherited his father's philanthropic and religious interests, and is treasurer of Dr. Barnardo's Homes.
A portrait of Williams by the Hon. John Collier was presented to Mrs. Williams in 1887 by the staff of Hitchcock, Williams & Co., to commemorate the firm's jubilee.
[J. E. Hodder Williams, The Life of Sir George Williams, 1906 (several good portraits); The Times, 7 Nov. 1905; private information.]
E. H. P.