12 October
Elizabeth Fry, Prison Reformer, 1845
Born at Earlham in Norfolk in 1780, in 1800 Elizabeth Gurney married
Joseph Fry, a London merchant and strict Quaker and they had a karge
family. In 1811 she was admitted a 'minister' in the Society of
friends and became a noted speaker. In 1813 the apalling state of the
prisons came to her notice and she devoted much of her time to the
welfare of female prisoners in Newgate. In 1820 she took part in the
formation of a 'Nightly Shelter for the Homeless' in london. She
travelled all over Europe in the cause of prison reform and behind all
her philanthropy there was a strong Christian impulse which she never
ceased to combine with her activities. She died at Ramsgate on 12
October 1845.
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