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Thomas Robinson Ferens (4 May 1847 – 9 May 1930) was a British politician, a philanthropist, and an industrialist. He was the Member of Parliament for Hull East for 13 years, and served the city as a Justice of the Peace and as High Steward. He helped establish Reckitt & Sons, a manufacturer of household goods, as one of Kingston-upon-Hull’s foremost businesses. His career with the company spanned 61 years—from his initial employment as a confidential and shorthand clerk until his death, as chairman, in 1930.

A devout Wesleyan Methodist, Ferens made numerous charitable donations throughout his life. His gifts to Hull include the Ferens Art Gallery and a donation of £250,000 for the establishment of University College (now the University of Hull). In other parts of the country he made substantial donations to schools, hospitals and charitable organisations.

Childhood and early career
Ferens was born in East Thickley, a village close to the market town of Bishop Auckland, County Durham. He was the third of the seven children of George Waller Ferens (1817–1893), a flour miller, and his wife, Anne, née Jackson. After attending Bishop Auckland private school until the age of thirteen, he found employment as a clerk in the Shildon office of the mineral department of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Six years later, he left home for Stockton where he worked as a clerk to Head, Wrightson & Co.

A committed autodidact, he taught himself grammar, arithmetic, mechanics, and shorthand. At weekends he taught at Sunday School and enjoyed playing cricket. In 1868, after working in Stockton for two years, he left to take up a post as a confidential shorthand clerk to James Reckitt of Reckitt and Sons in Kingston-upon-Hull.

Family life
In Hull, Ferens continued to teach in Sunday School, a practice he began during his time in Stockton. While teaching at the Brunswick Sunday School he met Ester Ellen (Ettie) Field, a merchant’s daughter. They married in 1873 at Sculcoates Registry Office; and they continued to teach at the Sunday School for the rest of their lives. Though Ettie remained childless, the couple adopted her nephew, John Johnson Till (known as Till), in 1880. Till Ferens separated from his wife and became estranged from his adoptive parents during the 1914-18 war.

A career in industry
Reckitt & Sons was already a successful firm when Ferens joined it in 1868. It produced household wares such as starch, washing blue and black lead. It had been acquired by Isaac Reckitt, a Quaker, in 1840 and was now run by his sons, also Quakers, George (1825-1900), Francis (1827-1917) and James (1833-1924). Ferens was industrious and forward-thinking; he moved swiftly through the company's managerial ranks. In 1874 he became Works Manager with a share in profits; in 1879, Secretary; in 1880, General Manager. He joined the board of directors in 1888 when Reckitt & Sons became a private joint-stock company. When James Reckitt died, 36 years later, Ferens was named joint chairman.

Under the guidance of Ferens and James Reckitt, the company flourished, becoming one of the most successful in the city. It opened offices in London and New York and expanded into pharmaceuticals—a natural progression from its disinfectants business. Dettol was launched in 1932.

Politics and public life
In 1894 Ferens was appointed a Justice of the Peace. In 1911 he was made a Freeman of the City of Hull. He entered parliament as Liberal member for Hull East in 1906 after an unsuccessful bid for the same seat six years earlier. In 1912 King George V appointed him to the Privy Council, and in the same year he became High Steward of Hull.

He was not a frequent speaker in parliament but he chaired several committees and was a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Union prior to the First World War. Hansard records that his first parliamentary contribution related to schools in orphan homes, and his last to the health of troops in Palestine.

He was an important figure in the Nonconformist community although, typically, he stayed out of the limelight. In a survey of the personalities of Free Church leaders, the Times noted that “among the most respected counsellors of Nonconformity are men who seldom figure on platforms”, and went on to list Ferens among their number. “The leadership of Nonconformity is largely in the hands of laymen”, it commented.

The 1918 election campaign was acrimonious and Ferens was subjected to personal attacks accusing him of being a Little Englander. In reporting on the four contested Hull seats, The Times spoke of “Slashing attacks, covert insults, challenges, defiances and the incessant chatter of other weapons…” It noted that Ferens’ opponent, Charles Murchinson, was “busy digging out Little Navy’ speeches of Mr Ferens in 1909…” Murchinson was elected and Ferens resolved never to stand again. After the war he became an active supporter of the League of Nations.

In 1924 Ferens attempted to intervene on behalf William George Smith, a Ship’s Painter who had been sentenced to death for murder at York Assizes. A telegram addressed to the King was sent in the early hours of December 9 appealing for the exercise of the Royal Prerogative. But the appeal was unsuccessful and Smith was executed at Hull Gaol later that morning.

Temperance
Ferens was a lifelong teetotaller and a strong advocate of temperance. In his youth he attended Band of Hope meetings. In 1913 he was elected treasurer of the United Kingdom Alliance.

In 1923 he shared a platform with the Archbishop of Canterbury at the Mansion House. The occasion was the inaugural meeting of the National United Campaign of the Churches, which was organised by The Temperance Council of the Christian Churches of England and Wales.

The campaign's objectives were to present “the modern scientific indictment of alcoholic beverages and its moral implications”, and to “rally local support for the Council’s immediate legislative program”, which included the prohibition of the sale of alcohol to persons under the age of 18, and the banning of the sale of alcohol on Sundays. But the Campaign was firmly opposed to Prohibition, as is plain in the Times' report of the Archbishop's address: "'To his mind prohibition was the very antithesis of temperance (Cheers.) It was an open confession of failure.'" Ferens donated £1000 to a fund established to accomplish the aims of the campaign.

A benevolent man
From the time he started earning a salary, Ferens allocated 10% of his income to charity. His personal wealth increased quickly, inline with the growth of Reckitt & Sons, affording him the opportunity to make ever more generous donations. This he deemed "one of the greatest blessings of my life". By 1920 he was distributing some £47,000 out of his annual income of £50,000. In 1917, a letter from Ferens was read out at a meeting of the Hull City Council. In the letter Ferens advised the council that he intended to donate to the city the deeds of the site of the former St. Johns church, which he had purchased early that year. He also intended to donate shares in Reckitt & Sons worth £35,000. The donations were to be used to build a new art gallery for the city in Victoria Square, on the site of the former church. However, it wasn’t until nine years later that the Prince of Wales laid the foundation stone for The Ferens Art Gallery. Afterwards, the prince visited the premises of Reckitt & Sons where he was greeted by the company’s workforce which now numbered 6000. The Ferens Art Gallery finally opened in 1927.

Educational establishments and hospitals were often the beneficiaries of Ferens’ munificence. In 1924 he donated £30,000 to extend Kingswood School for Boys, Bath. A year later, the Queen opened an extension to Farrington Girls School, Chiselhurst, which he had made possible with a donation of a similar amount. In the same year a new post-graduate Theological College, to which he had donated £17000, was opened in Cambridge for the training of Wesleyan ministers.

In February 1927 Ferens formally handed over the Ferens Institute of Otolaryngology to Prince Arthur, which he had made possible by a donation of £20,000. In handing over the institute, Ferens said that he hoped that it would attract workers from all parts of the Empire, and from countries outside it.

His largest single donation came in 1925 when he wrote to the Lord Mayor of Kingston-upon-Hull, informing him that he intended to donate £250,000 towards the foundation of a university college in the city. The college was to be built on an eighteen and a half acre site which Ferens had previously donated. Three years later the foundation stone was laid by the Duke of York, and Prince George opened the university in 1929.

Ferens remained a modest man; he saw giving as a moral duty and repeatedly declined offers of ennoblement. In replying to the headmaster’s speech when he visited Kingswood school in 1926, the King said: “The headmaster is right in assuming that I am already well acquainted with Mr Ferens’s benefactions in other parts of the country; this is not the first time I have been associated with him in this manner, and though I know the last thing that he would want would be a public expression of thanks on my part, I would like to be allowed to share in the debt of gratitude which the Kingswood School owes him today.”

Legacy
In 1930, ill health prevented Ferens from attending the company’s general meeting. It was the first he had missed in 50 years. He had not fulfilled any public engagements for some weeks; nevertheless, he wrote out his speech and it was presented by Sir Harold Reckitt. In the speech Ferens was again able to present the board with pleasing figures. The net profit was £1,277, 683, an increase of £33,108 over 1928, which was itself a record year. It was a source of great gratification for him “to be able to say that the most cordial relations exist between the workers, the management and the board”.

Ferens died in his home, Holderness House, in East Hull on May 9, 1930. Hettie had predeceased him eight years earlier. In his will he bequeathed the house and its grounds, together with an endowment of £50,000, to be used as a rest home for poor  gentlewomen and to be preserved as an open space for East Hull. In 2009, the house continues to be run as a residential home for ladies.

The year after his death, a pageant was held to mark the opening of Ferensway, a major new thoroughfare in the centre of the city. The Times reported that it would “rank as one of the finest in the North of England”, and continued, “The street is 100ft wide, 10ft wider than Regent Street in London." To make way for the new street, a large slum area was cleared of houses. Low-rent housing was provided to those displaced by the new road.

Reckitt & Son merged with J&J Colman in 1938 becoming Reckitt & Colman Ltd. In 1999 that company merged with Benckiser N.V. to become Reckitt Benckiser. In 2006 Reckitt Benckiser acquired Boots Healthrcare International for £1.9 billion. Though the company is now headquartered in Slough, the Hull site remains one of the city’s most significant employers.

In the 21st century, Thomas Ferens' legacy remains woven into fabric of the city of Hull. University college continued to expand, gaining its Royal Charter in 1954. In 1979 it became the first university to be awarded the Queen’s award for Technological Achievement. Alumni include John Prescott, Frank Field, Roy Hattersley and Roger McGough. Ferens Art Gallery now houses an internationally renowned permanent collection which includes works by Antonio Canaletto, David Hockney, Stanley Spencer and Henry Moore. Generations of Hull's children have enjoyed summers on the boating lake and drenching, perilous trips aboard its Wicksteed Splashboat. Almshouses which Ferens donated to the city in 1910 still provide shelter to the City's needy almost a century after his death.

The university, Ferensway, The Ferens Art Gallery and the Ferens Boating Lake have been familiar landmarks to the people of Hull for many years. They stand also in testament to one of their city's greatest benefactors.