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Thomas Jackson
Evangelist & Social Reformer
In October 1876
Thomas Jackson, the evangelist and social reformer, born in 1850
in Belper, Derbyshire, arrived in London and set up home with his
wife in Sidney Street, Whitechapel.
His poorly paid
work at the Bethnal Green and other missions often endangered his
health but he soldiered on in his battle to improve the conditions
of those suffering from drunkenness, destitution, ill health,
malnutrition and ignorance.
Often he would
visit and conduct a service in a notorious thieves kitchen off
Ratcliffe Highway where chairs and tables were screwed to the
floor to prevent them being used in a fight.
The Primitive
Methodist Mission, Home for Friendless and Orphan Lads, one of his
main concerns, was situated in Whitechapel Road. One of the lads
saved by the mission was a namesake of
William Shakespeare, who
had stolen his mother's savings and ridden from Derbyshire to
London on a bicycle. This penitent was found work with the London
Railway Company and eventually became an important personage with
the South African Railways. Records of all the boys who passed
through the Institute were kept. |
