George Cadbury was a late 19th century businessman who turned the chocolate business his father founded into a huge corporation. He was also a deeply religious man who believed in improving the lives of ordinary workers and who built one of the earliest and most successful model-villages, so that working people to enjoy better lives than were available in the squalid cities of the time.

Key Facts about George Cadbury

Born 1839, died 1922

A devout Quaker and social reformer

Developed Cadbury chocolates

Built the model-village of Bournville

A Short Biography of George Cadbury

In the 19th century Blake’s “dark, satanic mills” were everywhere and life for working people was hard. However not all factory owners were exploitive and some recognized the value of providing better conditions for their staff, as well as seeing it as a social or religious duty. George Cadbury was firmly in that group.

George Cadbury was born on the 19th of September, 1839, at the height of child-labour, poorhouses and other negatives of the Industrial Revolution. Engels published his study of poverty in the UK when George was just five and when he was nine Marx issued his Communist Manifesto. So the winds of change were sweeping through society and everyone knew that something had to be done to avoid a revolution.

George was the son of John Cadbury, a Quaker at a time when that faith created social limitations. He had, for example, been unable to attend university. He had a small chocolate business in Birmingham, since business was one area open to Quakers. Starting as a tea and coffee merchant he was instrumental in bringing chocolate, which was then a luxury item, into greater prominence in the British diet, chiefly at that time as a drink. He also was active in campaigning against cruelty to animals and a strong supporter of temperance. He had seven children and when he decided to retire in 1861, following the death of his wife, he handed the business to his sons George and his older brother Richard. George was in charge of manufacturing and Richard of sales, but for the first years the business did badly and they almost abandoned it. Then progress stepped in and transformed their fortunes.

The Dutch also made chocolate and the Van Houten Company had developed a new process to extract the cocoa butter from the beans, leaving behind a lighter, less-fatty powdered cocoa. The Cadburys brought this technology to England and were able to produce a palatable pure cocoa essence, instead of adding various flours to it, as had been the practise before. As luck would have it there was great concern at the time in the adulteration of food, so they were able to use the ‘pure’ label as a very successful marketing tool. The free publicity they obtained from the passage of the Adulteration of Food Acts in 1872-5 turned them into a thriving and profitable business. They were able to break the monopoly on quality enjoyed at that time by European manufacturers.

With capital now available, George established a new factory site four miles south of Birmingham, in open countryside. He realized that a way to alleviate the ills of the life of the poor in the grimy cities was to move to the country, so he built a town beside the factory, for his workers, but open also to others. In 1895 he hired a young architect, William Alexander Harvey, to design this town, to be called ‘Bournville’. A disciple of the Arts and Crafts Movement, Harvey built a low-rise town with many architectural features normally only seen in the houses of the rich. The town included both a parish church and a Quaker Meeting House, as well as an infants school and a junior school, which still runs today and scores well above the national average. The original town had 314 homes but no pubs. With yards and gardens, the homes in Bournville were in stark contrast to the squalid conditions of urban life. In 1900 the management of the village was placed into a Trust. The town still stands today and has been ranked as one of the nicest places in the UK to live (and alcohol is still not allowed).

George also introduced reforms in the work-place, including canteens and playing fields, followed by workers’ committees and adult education. His reforming spirit moved further afield too, when he purchased the Daily News newspaper to campaign against the Boer War, sweatshops and for pensions. He also founded what is today the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital.

George Cadbury himself had moved to Woodbrooke, a Georgian-style country house nearby, which today is a Quaker study centre. In 1872 he married Mary Tylor and they had three children. In 1887 Mary died and the following year George married Elizabeth Mary Taylor, with whom he had six children. Elizabeth became a prominent activist for poor children and for peace and continued her work long after George had died.

Cadbury died at home on the 24th of October, 1922. When Elizabeth died in 1951 they had 37 grandchildren and 49 great-grandchildren.

His Legacy

Cadbury was a visionary who believed that a better society could be built on a Christian-capitalist model and that social collapse could be averted through benevolence and improved living standards. He was strongly motivated by Quaker beliefs and the need for the better-off to help the poor. Bournville set a model for community development that strongly influenced town-planning.

Sites to Visit

Bournville still stands today with most of the original buildings and can be visited at any time.

George Cadbury’s grave is in the Friend’s Meeting House Burial Ground, in Bournville.

Further Research

There is only limited biographic material on Cadbury:

Life of George Cadbury, by A. G Gardiner (1923)

Cadbury’s Purple Reign: The Story Behind Chocolate’s Best-Loved Brand, by John Bradley (2008)

George Cadbury, by Leonie Bennett (2005) – part of a series for small children

There is also some material on Bournville itself:

The model village and its cottages: Bournville, by William Alexander. Harvey 1906

Bournville Housing: a Description of the Housing Schemes of Cadbury Brothers Ltd. and the Bournville Village Trust, by Bournville works Engineering Dept. (2013)

Bournville: Steam and Chocolate, by Mike Hitches (1992)