It has been jokingly said that the man who first had the courage to eat an oyster deserves to be crowned with the laurels of the hero. Unfortunately that man is not known! But the man who first used an umbrella in the streets of London is known to us, and the courage that enabled him to do that was the same courage that distinguished him in his labours as one of the greatest philanthropic heroes of his age.

Jonas Hanway, born in Portsmouth in 1712, had an eventful early life. Apprenticed to a merchant in Lisbon, he became a merchant in St Petersburg, and from there travelled widely in Persia, hoping to build up trade with that country. It was in the Far East that he saw umbrellas used, and when he returned to London having made his fortune, he brought an umbrella with him. People stood and stared, boys jeered and hooted, some thought him mad, and others merely laughed. But he persevered, people got used to the sight, and eventually some people started to copy him. Thus the new trade of umbrella making was originated, which was to give a living to thousands.

Jonas Hanway had a higher mission than starting a new fashion; he set for himself as an object in life to do as much good as he could. He did not pick on a particular cause, but seized the opportunities of doing good as they came. The first thing that struck him was the state of London’s streets, flooded with rainwater, clogged with filth, and dangerous with uneven flagstones. These seemingly small concerns were the seeds from which grew the massive municipal and sanitary reforms of a later age.

His travels had given Jonas an interest in seamen, who in those days were badly paid and ill treated, to the extent that it was difficult to recruit men and boys into the Royal Navy. So he instituted the Marine Society to educate, clothe and equip destitute boys and men for the service, and as long as he lived was the conscientious guardian of the society.

His next cause was that of prostitutes. His kindly heart was moved to pity by the sight of ‘unfortunate and fallen ones, who having once strayed from the paths of virtue saw no thoroughfare by which they could return thither’, as he put it. Jonas Hanway laboured on their behalf with great energy, and the result was the foundation of the Magdalene Hospital in 1758. He received every inmate of the hospital at his own house, and gave each one money when she left.

This project led him to take a passionate interest in unloved, unwanted and pauper children. First of all he became a patron and governor of the Foundling Hospital, and by getting the composer Handel to give musical entertainments on its behalf thus secured its future. Then he looked at the fate of children supposedly looked after in parish workhouses. Here he discovered dreadful conditions and appalling mortality statistics. In 1765, for instance, the workhouse at St Clement Danes had received 23 children, of whom 18 had died the next year; of 78 children received into the workhouse of St Andrew and St George, Holborn, 64 were dead before 1766. Jonas Hanway had uncovered a national disgrace. He published all the facts, and named every parish officer under whose hands infants had died, which made him highly unpopular; but he laboured on, and at his sole expense obtained an Act of Parliament which directed that all pauper infants should not be sent to the parish workhouses, but to special homes in the country where they would be looked after by proper guardians. Hanway’s act became popularly known as ‘The Act for Keeping Children Alive’.

He took up many other causes during the course of his life, including those of chimney-sweepers’ boys, slaves, and Sunday schools. Even at the moment of his death he was thinking of others: to his doctor he said ‘If you think it will be of any service in your practice, or to any one who may come after me, I beg you will have my body opened. I am willing to do as much good as I can.’

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