George Cadbury

George Cadbury got married to Mary Tyler, daughter of Quaker author Charles Tyler, in 1872. The couple had three kids - George Junior, Mary Isabel and Edward.

Mary died in 1887 during childbirth, leaving George alone with his young kids. His niece Jesse, Richard’s daughter, moved in to take care of the children.

While on his trip to London, he met Elizabeth Mary Taylor (Elsie) and married her in 1888. They both became parents of six children - Laurence John, George Norman, Elsie Dorothea, Egbert, Marion Janet and Ursula.

George Cadbury was born on September 19, 1839, as the third son of John and Candia Cadbury, in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, into a family of dedicated devotees of the Society of Friends and followed Quaker beliefs.

His father John, a Quaker, was into tea and coffee business at Bull Street, although he also made and traded cocoa and drinking chocolate. His mother, Candia was an active supporter of the Temperance Society.

He attended a local Quakers school for his formal schooling but had to quit midway when his mother died unexpectedly in 1855.

In April 1861, young George, along with Richard, took complete control over his father’s declining business due to his poor health, only to expand it into a worldwide flourishing chocolate enterprise.

Though the two brothers had been working with their father for a long time, they had to face difficulties in the initial years. They worked hard and spent cautiously.

George took charge of production and buying, while Richard took care of sales and marketing, which was in a bad shape and demanded immediate action.

The two brothers struggled and after five years of sheer hard work, they introduced ‘Cadbury Cocoa Essence’ – cocoa free from adulteration with starchy substances in 1861, which was marketed as ‘Absolutely Pure - Therefore Best’.

The momentous step of launching powdered cocoa changed the face of Cadbury’s small business and increased sales dramatically, thus transforming it into the renowned brand.

In 1890, George, along with other Quakers, played a major role in restoring the Grove House School, in Reading, into Leighton Park School – a foremost Quaker school in Britain.

In 1897, the Cadbury brothers launched their first milk chocolate, though it was similar to a Swiss brand initially, but was later improved to produce a lighter colored chocolate called Cadbury’s Dairy Milk in 1905.

In 1903, he donated one of his former residences, the Georgian style mansion Woodbrooke, to The Religious Society of Friends in 1903. Today, it is known as Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre and is Europe’s sole Quaker study centre.

In 1906, he got a 700-seat theatre constructed on the grounds of his home, Northfield Manor, where he organized food and entertainment for more than 25,000 underprivileged children of Birmingham, every summer.

He is known to have donated a large home in Northfield to Birmingham Cripples Union which was converted into a hospital in 1909, which is today called the Royal Orthopedic Hospital.