Social Welfare

[sufree]

Who was Charles Booth?

[cpmcmahon]

(1840-1916) English shipowner, statistician, and social reformer, born in Liverpool. He joined his brother Alfred in founding the Booth Steamship Company and the allied leather factories of Alfred Booth & Co. An ardent radical in his youth, he settled in London in 1875 and devoted 18 years to the preparation of his great "Life and Labour of the People in London" (1903), the prototype of the modern social survey, based on organised on-the-spot investigation. He was also a pioneer of old age pensions. (Source: Chambers Biographical Dictionary)