HISTORIC ROOM

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 175, 3 November 1941, Page 6

HISTORIC ROOM

DESTROYED IN LONDON BIRTHPLACE OF Y.M.C.A, The historic room in St. Paul's Churchyard. London, where the Y.M.C.A. had its birth nearly 100 years ago, has been completely destroyed by lire resulting from the bombing of London. The room was originally a bedroom occupied by a young man named George Williams and lour other employees of a drapery establishment, and in that room the first Y.M.C.A. was organised by Williams and his friends on June G, 18-1-1. As a young man George Williams came to London from Somerset in 1841 and obtained work with the lirm of George Hitchcock and Co., now known as Hitchcock, Williams and Co., warehousemen and shippers. Williams was shocked by the unhealthful social conditions that followed the industrial revolution in England, and he and his associates determined to help young men to make better use of their leisure time. It was the custom in those days, and for many years after, for young men to "live in" on the premises of their employees' businesses. Under these living conditions Williams and his friends held "Home" prayer meetings in their living room over the store. This was the first step they took towards helping their fellow workers. It was from these meetings that the Y.M.C.A. emerged. Organisation To-day George Williams died in 1905, but he had seen the Y.M.C.A. grow from that small beginning into the largest youth organisation .in the world. I-lis former room, which had been preserved by the association, has long been a shrine for Y.M.C.A members of all nations, and this historic place would have played an important part in the centennial oi the association which avill be celebrated in June, 194-1. The part which the organisation has played in the interests of young men throughout the world has been important, and its work in the last war and .in the present conflict have made it more intimately known and more truly appreciated with it in their ordinary civil life.