honorific_prefix caption death_date birth_place monuments nationality birth_date known_for image article_title name occupation
sir bust francis john williamson by william bloye , from a statue by 16 june 1881 mill street , kidderminster , england statue -rrb- bust cast from statue by william bloye -lrb- 1952 by , at erdington -rrb- francis john williamson -lrb- 1885 , destroyed english 23 february 1795 philanthropy josiah mason bust - 2011-04-30 crop.jpg josiah mason
 josiah mason industrialist
josiah mason

sir josiah mason -lrb- 23 february 1795 -- 16 june 1881 -rrb- was an english industrialist , engaged in pen manufacture and other trades , and a philanthropist .
he founded mason science college in 1875 , which later became the university of birmingham .
he was the son of a carpet-weaver , and was born in mill street , kidderminster .
he began life as a street hawker of cakes , fruits and vegetables .
after trying his hand in his native town at shoemaking , baking , carpentering , blacksmithing , house-painting and carpet-weaving , he moved in 1816 to birmingham .
here he found employment in the gilt-toy trade .
in 1824 he set up on his own account as a manufacturer of split-rings by machinery , to which he subsequently added the making of steel pens .
owing to the circumstance of his pens being supplied through james perry , the london stationer whose name they bore , he was less well known than joseph gillott and other makers , although he was really the largest producer in england , contributing heavily to the birmingham pen trade .
in 1874 the business was converted into a limited liability company .
besides his steel-pen trade mason carried on for many years the business of electro-plating , copper-smelting , and india-rubber ring making , in conjunction with george elkington .
mason was almost entirely self-educated , having taught himself to write when a shoemaker 's apprentice , and in later life he felt his deficiencies keenly .
it was this which led him in 1860 to establish his great orphanage at erdington , near birmingham .
upon it he expended about # 300,000 , and for this munificent endowment he was knighted in 1872 .
he had previously given a dispensary to his native town and an almshouse to erdington .
in 1880 mason college , since incorporated in the university of birmingham , was opened .
the total value of the endowment was about # 250,000 .
