Sir James Reckitt
1833 - 1924

James Reckitt was born in Nottingham on 14th November 1833, the youngest son of Isaac Reckitt, the founder of the firm. Educated at Ackworth, the Quaker School near Pontefract where George and Francis were educated before him, he joined the family firm in 1848 at the age of fifteen as a junior clerk.

By the time he was seventeen he joined his brothers travelling for sales but his talents were to lie more in administration. After his father's death in 1862 James lived at Brough, and in 1865 married Kathleen Saunders of Darlington. Shortly afterwards he built himself a house at Hessle called Mentone and lived next door to Francis. There the brothers would have the mail brought out to them each morning so that they could read it on their way to work by carriage.

James devoted his life to the Company, to politics and to supporting those causes which he deemed worthy. He fought a campaign to bring public libraries to Hull and when that failed he built one at his own cost. He showed much interest in Hull Royal Infirmary, mindful of the illnesses he suffered as a young man, and jointly with his brother Francis, bought a derelict hotel in Withernsea, converted it into a convalescent home and donated it to the Infirmary. He supported the Sailors' Children's Society in Hull and became its first President. He established a Garden Village in Hull. His many other charitable acts were neither confined to the Quakers nor even to his own country or establishments but extended to many individuals who were in need. In 1894 he was offered a baronetcy which, after some hesitation, he accepted. Sir James Reckitt died on 18 March 1924 and is buried in the Hull Quaker Cemetery.

(Thanks to Gordon Stephenson, Archivist at Reckitt Benckiser Heritage, Hull.)