Jack Catchpool

Jack Catchpool CBE
Warden of Toynbee Hall
In office 1963–1964
Preceded by	Arthur Eustace Morgan
Succeeded by	Walter Birmingham
Personal details
Born	(1890-08-22)22 August 1890 Leicester, UK
Died	13 March 1971(1971-03-13) (aged 80) Welwyn Garden City, UK
Education	Sidcot School Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre

(Egerton) St John Pettifor Catchpool CBE (1890-1971) also known as Jack Catchpool was a social worker who served as the warden of Toynbee Hall, London. He was general secretary of the Youth Hostels Association from its inception in 1930 until 1950.[1]

Early life

He attended the Quaker institutions Sidcot School and Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre.[2]

Career

During the First World War, Catchpool served with the Friends' Ambulance Unit in France and then with the Friends' war victims' relief committee in Russia.[2]

After the war, he held the post of sub-warden of Toynbee Hall from 1920 to 1929. He was a member of the London County Council education committee from 1925 to 1931.[2]

From 1930 to 1950 he served as the first general secretary of the Youth Hostels Association, and in 1938 he was elected president of the International Youth Hostel Federation.[2] He was also the Chairman of the Romney Street Group from 935 to 1950.[3]

Personal life

He married Ruth Allason in 1920 and they had five children.[1]

His older brother was Corder Catchpool.[4]

He was appointed chevalier of the Dutch Order of Orange-Nassau in 1948 and Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1951.

He died at his home in Welwyn Garden City, Herfordshire, on 13 March 1971.[2]

Publications

• Candles in the Darkness. London: Bannisdale Press, 1966

References

1. "Toynbee Hall Annual Report 1971". Toynbee Hall. 1971. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
2. Heath, Graham (2004). "Catchpool, (Egerton) St John Pettifor". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37268. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
3. Lee, J. M. (1 January 2007). "The Romney Street Group: Its Origins and Influence—1916–1922". Twentieth Century British History. 18 (1): 106–128. doi:10.1093/tcbh/hwl044.
4. Freeman, Mark (2010). "Fellowship, Service and the 'Spirit of Adventure': the Religious Society of Friends and the outdoors movement in Britain, c.1900–1950". Quaker Studies. 14 (1): 72–92.

Further reading

• Simpson, Duncan M. (2020). Youth Hostel Pioneer: Peace, Travels, Adventure and the Life of Jack Catchpool. Duncan M. Simpson Writing. ISBN 9781713110637.