Robert Owen, the son of a saddler and ironmonger, became one of the most successful mill owners of the Industrial Revolution with a reputation as the producer of fine cotton. However, it was not as a successful and respected businessman that he left his mark on history, but as one of the most prominent social reformers of the period, a pioneer of modern British socialism and a source of inspiration to the co-operative and trade union movements.

An original thinker, a man of imagination, philanthropist, visionary and an idealist, but above all Robert Owen had the strength to try and realise his ideals.

Robert Owen was born in Newtown, Mid-Wales, in 1771, the sixth child of the local saddler and ironmonger. A bright and lively boy he enjoyed all the normal childhood activities, playing football, learning to dance and to play the clarinet. At school he was so advanced for his age that he became a "pupil-teacher" when only seven. Robert was an exceptional boy in many ways. Before he was ten he had read many of the popular classics such as Pilgrims Progress and Robinson Crusoe, as well as books on history and theology normally considered much too difficult for a child.

After leaving school at the age of nine and spending a year as an assistant in the local haberdashery shop, Robert was sent to London to join his elder brother. He soon became apprenticed to James McGuffog, a draper from Stamford in Lincolnshire. His employer was a kind and generous man who encouraged Robert to continue his reading. Robert was happy with the McGuffog family and their liberal views on religion greatly influenced the boy.

The apprenticeship served, Robert returned to London in 17 85 to widen his experience and obtain a post as an assistant in a large popular draper's on London Bridge. This was a very different job with long hours and poor conditions. Robert's health began to suffer and after several months he found a new job and moved to Manchester.

In the late 18th Century a major revolution was taking place in the textile industry and Manchester was developing as the centre of the cotton industry. Originally, cloth manufacture had been a cottage industry, but the invention of water powered spinning machines, such as Arkwright's water frame, Hargreave's spinning jenny and later Compton's mule, led to the development of the cotton mills.

In Manchester Robert Owen met Ernest Jones, a young engineer who convinced him that there was a future in the manufacture of new spinning machines. In 1789, he borrowed £100 from his brother and the two men went into business. Jones was a good engineer, but it was Robert Owen who ran the business.

The partnership did not last very long and Robert Owen set up as a cotton spinner with just three employees. This venture prospered and enabled him to obtain a job as manager of a large mill. As a young man of twenty, he found himself in charge of a modern steam powered mill employing 500 people. He soon mastered the art of cotton spinning and earned a considerable reputation as a producer of fine cotton. His career prospered and eventually he became a partner in the Chorlton Twist Company.

Robert Owen remained in Manchester for 13 years and became a respected businessman and a well known figure in the city's intellectual circles. In 1793, at the age of 22, he was invited to join the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. Here he was introduced to new ideas and a different class of society and soon became friends with the leading intellectuals, including Dr. Percival - pioneer in public health reform, the poet Coleridge and John Dalton the chemist.

As an active member of the Society, Robert Owen took part in debates and presented papers on "the improvement of the cotton industry, the utility of learning, universal happiness and industrialisation and social influences on belief". These titles suggest that he was already forming his ideas on social reform and when the Manchester Board of Health was formed in 1796, he was asked to join the committee as a representative of the cotton industry.

Many of the potential customers of the Chorlton Twist Company lived to the north of Manchester, and Robert Owen often travelled as far north as Glasgow to seek orders. On one of these visits he met Caroline Dale (whom he later married), the daughter of David Dale, the important Glasgow businessman and owner of large cotton mills at New Lanark. In 1799 Owen and his partners bought the New Lanark mills and shortly afterwards he moved to New Lanark with his young wife. From the very beginning, Robert Owen resolved to modernise the mill and improve both the working and social conditions of his workers.

At this time, the mill employed between 1,500 and 2,000 people, including 500 children. These children had been removed from parish workhouses and employed as apprentices. The mill owners were responsible for feeding, clothing, housing and educating their apprentices, but very few carried out their responsibilities adequately. As a result the children were small and pale, their growth stunted by bad conditions, and usually illiterate. Safety standards were virtually non-existent and many children were killed or maimed by accidents at work.

In the majority of factories the working conditions were appalling. The workers had to endure long hours in dark poorly ventilated mills for very low wages. Low moral standards and drunkenness were common among the workers. Only a few men, like Robert Owen, realised that these problems were a direct result of poverty and bad conditions.

The New Lanark mills were probably better than most, but nevertheless the conditions were still dreadful by modern standards. They provided an ideal place for Robert Owen to carry out an experiment in social reform. Although his intentions were good, he had to win the trust of his workers. He finally succeeded after continuing to pay his workers for four months when cotton production stopped at the mills during the 1806 American embargo on cotton exports. From this time he enjoyed their confidence and eventually won their loyalty and affection.

Robert Owen faced an uphill battle at New Lanark; at first the workers were suspicious of his new schemes, and his partners, whilst sympathetic, were worried about their investment. Despite these problems, he was determined to proceed with his experiment.

To begin with Robert Owen wanted to shorten the working day from 13 to 10 hours, but under pressure from his partners he had to increase it to 14 hours. This was a major setback, and a working day of 12 hours was not introduced until 1816. In other areas he was more successful; a minimum age of 10 was introduced for apprentices and only local children were employed.

Robert Owen did not limit his interests to the mill; he also wanted to improve the living conditions of his workers. He begun by improving the existing houses and building new ones, paving the streets and introducing a system of street cleaning. All private shops were closed and the company store opened by David Dale was improved and profits used to open a free village school.

Not content with improving living and working conditions, Robert Owen also tried to influence their moral standards. A system of local government was introduced and fines were imposed for drunkenness. In the factory the behaviour of the workers was recorded by the supervisors using "silent monitors". A coloured marker was displayed by each person's work place, black for bad behaviour, blue for indifferent, yellow for good and white for excellent. The system was very effective and slowly the number of yellow and white markers increased.

In the early 19th Century, most working class children received no formal education. Before state schools were introduced, some schools for poor children were provided by the Church of England and non-conformist groups like the Quakers. However, most parents had to send their children to work and could not afford to lose their income and most employers did not provide any education for their apprentices.

Robert Owen believed that education had an important part to play in the formation of character and he had very advanced ideas on the way such education should be provided. He believed that there was more to education than teaching the 3R's, and natural history, music, dancing and games became an important part of school life. In New Lanark schools he pioneered new methods of teaching, involving the use of pictures, maps, and charts. He thought that education should be natural and spontaneous, but most of all enjoyable.

By 1809 Robert Owen had prepared his plans for building new schools, but he was unable to begin until 1813 because of the objections raised by his partners. Later with the support of more sympathetic partners he was able to build his Institute for the Formation of Character (opened in 1816). This imposing building was not only used as a school for the young, but also for evening lectures and concerts for the workers - the first attempt at introducing adult education to the working classes.

Robert Owen was the great pioneer of infants school. At New Lanark the school was open to very young children, and in many ways was similar to a pre-school playgroup as formal education did not begin until the children were six years old.

The new school was a great success and attracted a very large number of visitors, not only educational reformers, but foreign ambassadors and royalty, who were unanimous in their admiration for the project. Unfortunately not everyone approved of Robert Owen's liberal ideas and his partners strongly disapproved of the new methods. Eventually, the music and dancing were stopped, formal religious education was introduced and old methods of teaching were used.

At New Lanark, Robert Owen had successfully improved both the working and living conditions of all his workers and especially his apprentices. The New Lanark mills remained a rare exception, and Robert Owen was anxious to see similar reforms at other mills. In 1802 Sir Robert Peel (the father of the Prime Minister) had introduced regulations to improve the working conditions for apprentices in cotton mills, but these were generally ignored. Robert Owen managed to convince Peel that the children employed in the textile industry needed protection and that new laws were required.

New regulations were drafted by Robert Owen, raising the age of employment to 10, limiting the working day to 10 hours until the age of 18, providing half-time education until 12 years and introducing a system of factory inspection. Sir Robert Peel persuaded Parliament to set up a committee to enquire into factory conditions, and Robert Owen and many other mill owners were asked to give evidence.

The reforms suggested by Robert Owen were too advanced for his supporters in Parliament. New regulations were introduced in the Factory Act of 1819, but they were restricted to cotton mills. They increased the minimum working age to 9 and working hours were reduced to 12 hours a day, but this only applied to children under 16 and there were no rules for the education of apprentices. It was not until 1833 that a system of factory inspection was introduced to enforce the regulations.

Robert Owen was very disappointed and gave up trying to change the law and decided to appeal directly to public opinion.

Robert Owen's experiments in social reform at New Lanark were extremely successful and attracted a great deal of attention. He published his ideas on educational reform and the influence of social environment on character, in a series of essays which were collected and published as a New View of Society. In this major work he outlined his vision of the ideal community - a system run on a co-operative basis involving both factories and agriculture.

At this time Britain had been plunged into severe economic depression following the Napoleonic wars. There was mass unemployment, widespread poverty and hunger riots. In a series of public lectures, in pamphlets and letters to newspapers, Robert Owen proposed the formulation of communities based on New Lanark but run on a co-operative basis as a solution to the employment problem.

At first the new ideas attracted some influential supporters, including the Duke of Kent, but later his attacks on the Church did great damage to his campaign. By many he was seen as a challenger of the established order of society and lost some of the respect he had gained for his pioneering work in factory and educational reform.

After an extensive European tour in 1818, he was asked to prepare a report for the County of Lanark on his ideas for model communities as a solution for unemployment. This report, submitted in 1820, aroused considerable interest, and an influential committee was formed to consider his plans. Eventually it was suggested that funds should be raised for an experimental community, although the committee did not support his plans for widespread social reform.

As the years passed Robert Owen grew more disillusioned as his plans for model communities failed to make any progress. Even in New Lanark, an outstanding success in social reform, he was encountering problems with his partners over his liberal views on religion and education.

In 1824 Robert Owen heard that a settlement called Harmony in Indiana in the United States was for sale. That winter he sailed for America to inspect the estate believing that the New World might provide the right environment for establishing an experimental co-operative community. Harmony proved ideally suited to his needs, with agricultural land, small industries and community buildings and the estate was purchased for one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars.

Owen's ideas for social reform and co-operative communities had been well received in America, and shortly after his arrival he was invited to speak to Congress. He travelled widely, publicising his scheme and inviting people to join his New Harmony community.

Meanwhile, the settlement was left in the care of his son, William. Settlers flocked to New Harmony, but most were unsuited to community life and very few had the necessary skills to farm the land or run small industries. As the settlement became overcrowded the chaos developed, William had to write to his father urging him to send no more settlers.

Eventually, order was restored and the community became organised using a system based entirely on co-operation. This state of affairs did not last long, and without continuous guidance from Robert Owen, a feeling of dissatisfaction grew in the community. This resulted in the community splitting into independent but co-operative groups. Some of these still used an entirely co-operative system, but others confined their co-operation to religion, education, recreation and work in the natural sciences, which was encouraged by Owen's partner in the venture, William McClure, a Scottish philanthropist from Philadelphia.

By 1828 it was clear that Robert Owen's New Harmony model co-operative community experiment had failed. In June that year he handed over the estate to his sons an returned to Britain.

Robert Owen had returned home a poor man, having sold his shares in New Lanark to finance New Harmony, but his faith in the co-operative ideal remained strong. Moreover, he discovered that his ideas which had been ignored by the upper and middle classes were spreading amongst the workers through the new trade unions.

At this time, in the early 1830's, the trade union movement was growing and a number of co-operative societies had opened shops and workshops. In 1832 Robert Owen started his own newspaper, "The Crisis", but he was gradually drawn into the co-operative and labour movement. He opened the National Equitable Labour Exchange in London for the exchange of goods between co-operative societies and issued Labour Notes valued in hours in exchange for merchandise.

The new unions were growing rapidly and fighting for shorter hours, the end of child labour, co-operative action and labour exchanges, reforms which Robert Owen had been campaigning for over the last 20 years. In 1832 he proposed that the unions should unite and in 1834 the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union was formed. Within a week it had over half a million members and the government were alarmed by this new mass labour movement.

The government reacted by arresting six agricultural workers from Tolpuddle in Dorset, who were members of the new union, under the Illegal Oaths Act, and sentenced them to seven years transportation.

Robert Owen led a protest of 30,000 union members, but the Home Office refused their petition. The union was slowly financially weakened by strikes and lock-outs by the employers and while Robert Owen called for co-operation between the employers and the union, the employees believed in fighting for their rights. In August 1834 the union collapsed dragging down hundreds of small co-operative shops and Owen's newspaper and labour exchange. This marked marked the end of the popular mass labour movement which had grown around Robert Owen.

However, the idea of the co-operative movement did not die completely, for in 1844 the Rochdale Pioneers started a co-operative venture in Lancashire which eventually grew into the modern Co-operative Movement

In 1835, although Robert Owen was sixty-four he remained both energetic and hard working. His wife had died ,in 1831 and he now lived a simple frugal life on a small annuity from his sons, devoting his time to the promotion of his New View of Society.

The period 1835 to 1845 saw the rise of the "Owenites" and the development of "Rational Religion", a sectarian organisation for the promotion of Robert Owen's ideals, which held services in "Halls of Science" throughout the country. In 1839 the Owenites, supported by Owen himself, set up an experimental community at Queenswood in Hampshire. This co-operative community also failed because of its lavish scale.

Since his youth Robert Owen had opposed orthodox religion and his critical pamphlets incurred violent opposition from the Established Church. In his later years he continued to criticise the Church and a fierce battle developed between the bishops and strict Anglicans, and Owen and his followers , known as socialists. The government reluctantly agreed to hold an enquiry and as a result a few socialists were prosecuted for blasphemy. Some of the socialists, although not Owen himself, were violent in their counter-attacks and both sides were responsible for causing bad feeling, which was to persist for a number of years. Meanwhile, Robert Owen continued to lecture and write, publishing the New Moral World in 1837.

By 1845, Robert Owen was an old man, although he remained active. He visited the United States and France and continued to write, publishing his autobiography in 1857. Somewhat surprisingly, he turned to spiritualism in his last years.

A bare chronicle of dates and brief biographical details do not do justice to this remarkable man,. His epitaph on the Owen Memorial in Kensal Green Cemetery London reads: