Frederick James Gould
| Frederick James Gould | |
|---|---|
Gould in 1921: portrait by G. C. Beresford
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| Born |
19 December 1855 Brighton, England |
| Died | 6 April 1938 (aged 82) London |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Writer, teacher |
| Known for | Pioneer of secular humanism |
Frederick James Gould (19 December 1855 – 6 April 1938) was an English teacher, writer, and pioneer secular humanist.
He was born in Brighton, the son of William James Gould and his wife Julia, who were evangelicalist Anglicans. He grew up in London, and at the age of seven was sent to study and sing in the choir at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. He then went to school at Chenies, Buckinghamshire, where he became a day and Sunday school teacher. At the age of fifteen, he thought he heard voices in his head exclaiming "How wonderful is the love of God!", following which he studied theology "in a kind of devout fury". However, after he was appointed head teacher at Great Missenden church school in 1877, he began to develop doubts about his own religious faith.
In 1879 he moved to London, married, and began working as a teacher in publicly funded board schools in poorer parts of the East End. By the early 1880s he had become actively involved in the Secularist movement. He was transferred from the school in Bethnal Green to Limehouse in 1887, after his published notes in the Secular Review were seen by his employers, the London School Board, and he was exempted from teaching the Bible. He later asked to be allowed to resume Bible teaching, to stress its ethical rather than supernatural elements, but this was refused.
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