| Description | Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's memoir of her late husband provides a biographical account of George Cadbury's life. Beginning with his birth in 1839, Taylor Cadbury describes her husband's education and training in business methods before he entered the Cadbury family business in Bridge Street in Birmingham. She provides a detailed account of George and Richard Cadbury's work supporting the Adult School Movement in Birmingham during the latter half of the nineteenth century, referring to their work with the Severn Street First-Day School. Further passages in the memoir refer to George Cadbury's political interests, noting particularly his involvement with Birmingham Town Council and his work to reform 'social conditions'.
The main focus of Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury's memoir is the development of Bournville during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Taylor Cadbury refers to the removal of the Cadbury factory from Bridge Street in Birmingham to a new site in suburban Bournville which was completed in 1879, remarking on the provision which George and Richard Cadbury made for the welfare of their employees. Futher sections of the memoir describe the development of Bournville village around the factory in the late 1890s. Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury also provides an intriguing insight into her own involvement in Bournville with reference to the experiences of poor urban living conditions which she had gained through philanthropic work in the slums of East End London. In addition, Taylor Cadbury refers to her work for Birmingham City Council as Chair of the Education Committee's Hygiene Sub-Committee and as City Councillor for King's Norton.
Elizabeth Taylor Cadbury describes George Cadbury's development of adult school centres, social clubs and Quaker Meeting Houses in Northfield and Selly Oak, providing an overview of Cadbury's business growth during the early twentieth century with reference to international developments. She concludes her memoir with a passage about George Cadbury's foundation of the Bournville Village Trust and a brief account of his death and memorial service.
It is possible that this memoir, written in the form of an interview given by Taylor Cadbury, was created to commemorate an occasion or anniversary celebrated by Cadbury or the Bournville Village Trust, or perhaps to mark twenty years since the death of George Cadbury in October 1922. |