Thomas Bowman Stephenson ( 22 December 1839 – 6 July 1912) was a Wesleyan Methodist minister and philanthropist who founded children's homes and the charity now called Action for Children. He also founded an order of deaconesses.
Biography
He founded what was to become the National Children's Home in 1869.1 He later founded the Wesleyan Deaconesses in 1890.2 In 1891 he was elected President of the Methodist Conference.3 He was a member of the London School Board. From 1902 to 1907 he was warden of the Methodist Deaconess Training College at Ilkley, West Yorkshire.4
He retired in 1907 and died in London on 6 July 1912. He is buried in City of London Cemetery.5
External links
References
"140 years of Action for Children". Retrieved 8 October 2012. http://www.actionforchildren.org.uk/about-us/our-history/celebrating-140-years ↩
"History of the MDO". Retrieved 8 October 2012. http://methodistdiaconalorder.org.uk/index.php?page=history-of-the-mdo ↩
Bradfield, William (1913). The life of the Reverend Thomas Bowman Stephenson : founder of 'The Children's Home' and of the Wesley Deaconess Institute. C. H. Kelly, London. https://archive.org/details/lifeofreverendth00brad ↩
"The National Children's Home Story: Staff Training". Retrieved 18 June 2019. http://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/NCH/training.shtml ↩
London Cemeteries: An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer, by Hugh Meller & Brian Parsons ↩