Alexander Fletcher (minister) - Poverty and Prison Reform

Poverty and Prison Reform

Alexander Fletcher was noted for his good works as well as his Christian teachings. When he visited the Scottish island of Skye, the poverty made a deep impression on him. On his return to London he founded a society to give generous support to the Islanders, including to the 'The Skye-boat Scheme'. Fletcher was a direct patron as well, and the society was still operating when he died. He was a frequent visitor to prisons, including to Newgate prison in London, where Elizabeth Fry achieved much to improve conditions.

Apart from his work with children, Fletcher devoted the most energy to the non-denominational missionary society, which became the London Missionary Society (LMS). He was named Director of the society, whose London office stood in Blomfield Street, opposite the chapel which Fletcher founded.

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