Charles Booth (social reformer)

Charles James Booth (30 March 1840 – 23 November 1916) was an English social researcher and reformer. He is most famed for his innovative work on documenting working class life in London at the end of the 19th century, work that along with that of Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree influenced government intervention against poverty in the early 20th century and contributed to the creation of Old Age pensions and free school meals for the poorest children.

Booth's wife, Mary Macaulay, was a cousin of the Fabian socialist and author Martha Beatrice Webb, Baroness Passfield (née Potter; 1858–1943). Booth worked closely with Potter for his research on poverty.

St Paul's Cathedral is the grateful recipient of his gift of Holman Hunt's painting: The Light of The World.

Charles Booth was born in Liverpool, Lancashire on 30 March 1840 to Charles Booth and Emily Fletcher. His father, a scion of the ancient Cheshire family, was a wealthy shipowner and corn merchant as well as being a prominent Unitarian.

He attended the Royal Institution School in Liverpool before being apprenticed in the family business at the age of sixteen.

Booth's father died in 1860, leaving him in control of the family company to which he added a successful glove manufacturing business. Booth entered the skins and leather business with his elder brother Alfred, and they set up Alfred Booth and Company with offices in Liverpool and New York City using a £20,000 inheritance.

After learning shipping trades, Booth was able to persuade Alfred and his sister Emily to invest in steamships and established a service to Pará, Maranhão and Ceará in Brazil. Booth himself went on the first voyage to Brazil on 14 February 1866. He was also involved in the building of a harbour at Manaus which overcame seasonal fluctuations in water levels. Booth described this as his "monument" (to shipping) when he visited Manaus for the last time in 1912.

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