George Cadbury

George Cadbury was born in Birmingham in 1839 into a Quaker family. His father John ran a tea and cocoa business that by the late 1850s was losing money badly. In 1861 John, worn down by his wife's death and his own poor health, handed it to his sons Richard, 25, and George, 21. They had a small inheritance each and, by George's account, they came close to giving up more than once. To save money he gave up tea, coffee, newspapers and most of his social life, and the two brothers worked from early morning until late at night.

The turning point came in 1866 with a new Dutch press that squeezed the fat out of the cocoa bean, letting them sell a pure cocoa essence rather than the starchy, adulterated drinks then common. Sales climbed. By 1879 the works in the city centre were too small, and George chose a green site four miles south, on a railway and a canal, and called it Bournville. Workers had playing fields, a kitchen serving hot meals, and a half-day on Saturday.

From 1895 he began building houses around the factory, and in 1900 gave the whole estate to a trust so that its profits could not be taken by his own family. Nearly half the residents did not work for Cadbury; the point was to show that decent housing at a fair rent was possible.

Every Sunday morning for fifty years he taught at an adult school for working men. In 1901 he bought the Daily News to give the anti-war and social reform cause a voice. He died in 1922, and the trust he set up still runs Bournville.