who in his day did much for the children of Scotland.
child and sixth son of David Guthrie and Clementina Cay.
years before he could be licensed as a minister, and was able to spend the time at the Sorbonne in Paris.
who started the savings bank movement in 1810.
growing reputation. The Rev Thomas McCrie spent a day with Guthrie and is said to have observed that “he will not be long there”, meaning men of talent were soon called upon by others. So it was for the Rev Thomas Guthrie..
formed his “Industrial Feeding School” in 1841. Guthrie converted a room beneath the church for the making of soup and porridge and he soon had his first class attending. Within a year there were three Ragged Schools in Edinburgh with an attendance of two hundred and sixty five children.
seven boys as pupils at the Ragged School in Free St.
from destitution and train them to earn an honest living.
Guthrie was also involved with other good works including the Board of the Royal Infirmary; a Home for Fallen Women, the Blind Asylum and a House of Refuge. He was also involved with the Temperance legislation and produced a booklet ” The City, its Sins and its Sorrows” that ran to 50,000 copies when published. His efforts led to changes in 1853 to the licensing hours for public houses and closed them completely on Sunday. In 1862 he was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, for whom he worked most diligently on behalf of the Manse Fund, and saw the provision of very many manses throughout the country.
St. Leonards on Sea, in Sussex, surrounded by his wife and eight of their ten children. He was interred in Edinburgh on Friday February 28, 1873, with his funeral procession watched by 30,000 bystanders. 230 children from the Original Ragged Schools attended the graveside and sang “There is a happy land, far, far away”.