Monument MPM1739 - John Pounds Memorial

Memorial stone and grave of John Pounds (1766-1839), founder of the Ragged Schools. The memorial and grave are located in the Memorial Garden to the John Pounds Unitarian Church, High Street, Portsmouth.

Memorial stone situated on the grave of John Pounds (1766-1839), founder of the Ragged Schools. Pounds, a cripple, taught the children of the poor from his shoemakers shop in St Mary Street (now Highbury Street). The memorial and grave are located in the Memorial Garden of the John Pounds Unitarian Church in the High Street. The original church which Pounds attended was bombed during the Second World War and the present building erected in its place. [1]

There are a number of headstones lined up along the wall of the garden which belonged to the former burial ground. A modern replica of John Pounds shop has been constructed at the far end of the garden, behind the church. [HER Officer]

The memorial is in the form of a column of white stone with an inscription on two sides which reads [1]:

UNDERNEATH THIS MONUMENT
REST THE MORTAL REMAINS OF
JOHN POUNDS
THE PHILANTHROPIC SHOEMAKER
OF ST MARY'S STREET PORTSMOUTH
WHO WHILE
WORKING AT HIS TRADE IN A VERY
SMALL ROOM GRATUITOUSLY
INSTRUCTED IN A USEFUL EDUCATION
AND PARTLY CLOTHED AND FED
SOME HUNDREDS OF GIRLS AND BOYS
HE DIED SUDDENLY
ON NEW YEARS DAY MDCCCXXXIX
WHILE IN HIS ACTIVE BENIFICENCE
AGED LXXII YEARS




THIS MONUMENT
HAS BEEN ERECTED CHIEFLY
BY MEANS OF PENNY SUBSCRIPTIONS
NOT ONLY FROM THE CHRISTIAN
BROTHERHOOD
WITH WHOM JOHN POUNDS
HABITUALLY WORSHIPPED
IN THE ADJOINING CHAPEL
BUT FROM PERSONS OF WIDELY
DIFFERING RELIGIOUS OPINION
THROUGHOUT GREAT BRITAIN
AND FROM THE MOST DISTANT
PARTS OF THE WORLD

IN CONNECTION WITH THIS MONUMENT
HAS ALSO BEEN FOUNDED IN LIKE MANNER
WITHIN THESE PRECINCTS
A LIBRARY TO HIS MEMORY
DESIGNED TO EXTEND
TO AN INDEFINITE FUTURITY
THE SOLID MENTAL AND MORAL USEFULNESS
TO WHICH THE PHILANTHROPIC SHOEMAKER
WAS SO EARNESTLY DEVOTED
TO THE LAST DAY OF HIS LIFE

<1> Backhouse, Tim, 2002-17, Memorials and Monuments in Portsmouth (Bibliographic reference). SPM259.