Thomas Hancock Nunn

Thomas Hancock Nunn (1859-1937)[1] was an English social reformer.

He was born on 14 March 1859 in London and admitted to Christ's College, Cambridge in 1880 with no scholarship. He received his B.A. in 1884 and his M.A. in 1904.[2] He was also known as Tom Nunn and was married to Kate Hannah Nunn. His brother John Hancock Nunn was in the India rubber business founded by Thomas Hancock.[3]

Nunn was vice-chair of the Hampstead Charity Organization Society (COS).[4] Soon after the founding of the first university-affiliated institution of the world-wide Settlement movement in 1884 at Toynbee Hall in Whitechapel he made a base for himself there.[3] He resided there from 1884 to 1891,[2] and in 1892 published an article, "The Universities' Settlement in Whitechapel" in The Economic Review which describes why it was established and how well it had meant those aims.[5]

At Hampstead in 1902 he founded the first Council of Social Welfare which brought all welfare agencies together under one administrative umbrella.[4] This was to lay the foundations for the London Council of Social Service.[1] He was a commissioner of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905–09,[6] and in 1909 published a pamphlet A council of social welfare : a note and memorandum in the report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress.[7]

He died 22 June 1937 at Shoreham-by-Sea.[2] His biography was published in 1942 by H.J.Marshall.[8] A charity bearing his name, the Thomas Hancock Nunn Memorial fund, operated from 1962 to 1991.[9]

  1. ^ a b "LONDON COUNCIL OF SOCIAL SERVICE AND RELATED ORGANISATIONS". London Metropolitan Archives. City of London Corporation. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  2. ^ a b c Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900, Volume 2. Cambridge University Press. 15 September 2011. ISBN 9781108036146. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  3. ^ a b Loadman, John; James, Francis (2010). The Hancocks of Marlborough: Rubber, Art and the Industrial Revolution - A Family of Inventive Genius. Oxford University Press. pp. 215–216. ISBN 9780199573554. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  4. ^ a b Pierson, John (2011). Understanding Social Work: History and Context. McGraw-Hill Education (UK). p. 47. ISBN 9780335237951. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  5. ^ Nunn, Thomas Hancock (1892). "The Universities' Settlement in Whitechapel". The Economic Review. 2. Oxford University Branch of the Christian Social Union: 478–495. Retrieved 14 August 2016.
  6. ^ "A Council of Social Welfare. By Thomas Hancock Nunn, M.A." The Spectator. 19 March 1910. p. 25. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  7. ^ "A council of social welfare". Amazon.ca. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  8. ^ Thomas Hancock Nunn : the life and work of a social reformer. OCLC 3430381. Retrieved 15 August 2016 – via WorldCat.
  9. ^ "Thomas Hancock Nunn Memorial Fund". Charity Commission. Retrieved 15 August 2016.