Richard Cadbury

{{Infobox person

| name = Richard Cadbury

| image = Richard Barrow Cadbury (1).jpg

| alt = Old man with full beard

| caption = Richard Barrow Cadbury

| birth_name = Richard Barrow Cadbury

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1835|08|29|df=y}}

| birth_place = Edgbaston, Warwickshire, England

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1899|03|22|1835|08|29|df=y}}

| death_place = Jerusalem,
Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem,
Ottoman Empire

| other_names =

| occupation = Chocolate manufacturer, entrepreneur, philanthropist

| years_active = 1861–1899

| known_for = Co-founder of Bournville with his brother George Cadbury

| notable_works =

| children = Beatrice Boeke-Cadbury

| relatives = Cadbury family

}}

File:Blue plaque Richard Cadbury.jpg blue plaque at Wheeley's Road, Edgbaston]]

Richard Barrow Cadbury (29 August 1835 – 22 March 1899) was an English entrepreneur, chocolate-maker and philanthropist. He was the second son of the Quaker John Cadbury, founder of Cadbury's cocoa and chocolate company.

Career

Together with his younger brother George he took over the family business in 1861. Richard was the first to commercialise the connection between romance and confectionery with the company producing a heart-shaped box of chocolates for Valentine's Day in 1868.{{cite book |title=Guinness World Records 2017 |date = 8 September 2016|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hxAyDQAAQBAJ&dq=cadbury+chocolate+boxes+1868&pg=PA90 |publisher=Guinness World Records |page=90|isbn = 9781910561348|quote=Richard Cadbury, eldest son of John Cadbury who founded the now iconic brand, was the first chocolate-maker to commercialize the association between confectionery and romance, producing a heart-shaped box of chocolates for Valentine's Day in 1868}} In 1878 they acquired 14 acres (57,000 m²) of land in open country, four miles (6 km) south of Birmingham where they opened a new factory in 1879. Over the following years, more land was acquired and a model village was built for his workers, which became known as Bournville.

He donated Moseley Hall to the City of Birmingham, for use as a children's convalescent home.{{cite web|url = http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/teacher/history/jm_jones/moseley/section_4/|title= Moseley Hall|accessdate = 13 September 2013}}

Death

Having fallen ill with diphtheria during a trip to the Khedivate of Egypt, Cadbury was taken for treatment to the hospital of the Church's Ministry Among Jewish People in the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, but succumbed to his illness on 22 March 1899, aged 63{{cite web |title=Chocolate, Tragedy, and Redemption |url=https://www.cmj-israel.org/chocolate-tragedy-redeption |website=CMJ Israel. |access-date=11 September 2023}} At that time, he and his brother George owned 100% of the ordinary shares in their business.{{cite book|last1=Franks|first1=Julian|last2=Mayer|first2=Colin|last3=Rossi|first3=Stefano|chapter=Spending Less Time with the Family: The Decline of Family Ownership in the United Kingdom|title=A History of Corporate Governance around the World: Family Business Groups to Professional Mergers|editor-last=Morck|editor-first=Randall K.|date=2005|publisher=University of Chicago Press|page=600|isbn=0-226-53680-7}}

Aftermath

In 1905 the executors of Cadbury's estate distributed £40,000 to various charities including £10,000 to the Temperance Hospital in London.{{cite news|newspaper=Gloucester Journal|title=Mr, Richard Cadbury's Will - Munificent Bequests|date=25 March 1905|page=1}}

His wife Emma died in 1907 after falling down some stairs while at sea on the Empress of India. His daughter Beatrice Boeke-Cadbury worked as an educational reformer and, for her work saving Jewish children during the Holocaust, was posthumously honoured as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.{{Cite web |title=Gezinsblad van Beatrice Cadbury |url=http://www.humanitarisme.nl/personen/index.php?m=family&id=I747 |access-date=2022-07-10 |website=De geschiedneis van het humanitarisme in Nederland |language=nl, en |quote=Yad Vashem file number M.31.2/4963/1}}

References

{{ODNBweb|id=32232|title=Cadbury, George|first=I. A.|last=Williams}}

External links

Category:1835 births

Category:1899 deaths

Cadbury, Richard

Category:19th-century English businesspeople

Richard

Category:Deaths from diphtheria