Seebohm Rowntree (Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree)
Rowntree was the head of a famous confectionary company in York and also a committed social reformer. He was born in York on the 7th of July 1871 as the third child of Joseph Rowntree and Emma Seebohm. Like his father, Rowntree also believed that it was his duty to help the poor and disadvantaged people and on Sundays he taught at the York Adult School and also visited the homes of his students in order to obtain first hand knowledge and understanding of the problems they faced.
Inspired by his father's work and also the work of Charles Booth, Rowntree decided to carry out his own studies in York and after having spent two years on the project he published Poverty, A Study of Town Life in 1901.
In his study, Rowntree distiguished between families living in primary and secondary poverty, primary poverty meaning families which couldn't afford even minimum necessities to life, whereas families suffering from secondary poverty had the sufficient income but were however spending that money on other things, some of them being "useful" and others - such as spending on alcohol - was "wasteful".
His study provided a lot of statistics on wages and work hours, nutritional needs and food consumation, health and also housing. His book showed the failings of the capitalist system at the time and how change had to come about in order to solve or better the problems of unemployment, old-age and illness.
Rowntree was a strong supporter of the Liberal party and hoped that the conclusions to be drawn from his study were to be adapted as a party policy. In 1907, Lloyd George (at the time President of the Board of Trade) met Rowntree and the two became close friends. The following year, Lloyd George became Chancellor of the Exchequer and introduced a series of reforms that were introduced by Rowntree

	Created by Louisa Wania over 10 years ago

A set of notes covering the entire topic of the Liberal Reforms for the second paper in depth, for all those studying world history! The second paper is based on sources, however, to gain the marks on the source questions you need to apply the background knowledge - especially the correct dates!