My search to find missing minister
DEAR Editor, I am hoping that some of your readers might be able to assist me in my research on St John’s Church in Cavendish Road, Rotton Park.
I understand from a newspaper article of 1910 that a church existed in Cavendish Road known as St John’s Church. From my initial research, it’s full name was St John the Evangelist Church (but may have been St John the Baptist Church).
Again from my research, it was a Baptist church.
Going along Cavendish Road, no such church seems to exist today. I have made various enquiries but have drawn a blank.
The church is mentioned in the Birmingham Daily Gazette, August 20, 1910.
There was an important meeting held there, which was supported by the Cadbury’s, to establish the British Boy Scouts (Peace Scouts) in Birmingham.
The organisation was founded in May 1909 to oppose what was seen as the militarism of Baden-Powell’s Scouts.
The growth of the Peace Scouts posed a serious threat to Baden-Powell’s own organisation. For example, the Peace Scouts had an international council some nine years before the Baden-Powell organisation.
It was the bankruptcy of the President (Sir Francis Vane) in 1912 that diminished the numbers and it is largely forgotten in Britain (although Troops still exist today).
One of the leaders of the British Boy Scouts was Albert Jones Knighton.
In 1926 he left to form the British Boy Sentinels (some reports place his defection to 1922).
I am hoping that somebody might be able to assist me in finding out more about this church, and Albert Jones Knighton, and the organisations of which he was a leader. There