Groom, John Alfred (1845–1919), founder of the John Grooms charity for disabled children , was born at 6 North Street, Clerkenwell, London, on 15 August 1845, the third son of George Paul Groom (1819/20 – 1866), a copperplate printer, and his wife, Sarah Maria, née Wigton (1820/21 – 1902).
After leaving school he became an errand-boy, but was later apprenticed in an engine - turning business, where he learned the trade of silver engraving. At twenty-one he finished his apprenticeship and set up his own engraving business, with a machine shop in a glass-fronted shed in the garden of his house in Sekforde Street, Clerkenwell. On his father's death, leaving a family of five boys and one girl to be brought up by their mother, John Groom became the effective leader.
The Grooms were regular churchgoers, and from the age of sixteen John taught at a Sunday school. With a friend who was a City of London commissioner he visited homes in the slum districts, an experience which intensified his determination to help those most in need. Soon after setting up his own business Groom was asked to become superintendent of a nearby mission hall. This voluntary post gave full scope to his philanthropic instincts, and while his brothers helped to run the engraving business he put much of his energy and money into the mission work. The mission hall enabled him to help the blind and disabled girl s whom he saw every day on the streets of the capital selling flowers and watercress to passers-by. Their work was both seasonal and dependent upon good weather, as fewer flowers were sold on dull days. If they did not make enough money they would often sleep out at night, fearful of returning home. Calling on family and friends to help, Groom hired a large meeting room near Covent Garden. There he founded, in 1866, the Watercress and Flower Girls' Christian Mission, commonly known in its early days as ‘John Groom's Crippleage’.
The mission became a centre where the girls could get a free mug of cocoa early in the mornings. Twice weekly there was a hot dinner, for which they paid a nominal halfpenny. They were encouraged to wash, make themselves tidy, and mend their clothes, while Groom read Bible stories. He also encouraged them to attend one of the three Sunday schools which he had started in different parts of the capital. The mission was given a powerful boost when the earl of Shaftesbury offered to become its president and to use his many contacts to help raise funds. Shaftesbury had spotted Groom going about his work in the poorer districts, where he was a familiar figure in his top hat and frock coat, and they became close friends.
Groom married, on 5 March 1868, Sarah (1849/50 – 1906), the daughter of George John Farrington, a coachman. They had three sons and a daughter. His wife, ‘a very practical Christian’, helped in the mission work. After her death he married, on 12 October 1908, Ada Wood (b . 1877/8), a hospital nurse, daughter of Samuel Wood, contractor. She survived him.
Groom wanted above all else to give the blind and disabled girls a degree of independence, but while some were found work in domestic service most remained on the street. He saw a long-term solution in the manufacture of handmade flowers, which were then becoming popular. The mission hall was converted into a daytime factory, and a flower-making business was begun.
Groom was a ‘practical man with no use for slipshod amateurism’, and he mastered the trade himself. Under his guidance the venture soon took off and he turned his attention full-time to flower making. His brothers also helped to work the machines that stamped the petals out of stiffened ‘sateen’: they were then coloured and shaped by the girls, and worked around stems made of wire wrapped in green paper.
The girls became highly skilled at all kinds of flower, even orchids. In 1894 the mission moved to larger premises at Woodbridge Chapel, close to Sekforde Street, and the flowers were by now sold wholesale to private houses and businesses. There were exhibitions in town halls of flowers and flower making, and in 1906 the girls were invited to decorate the Guildhall for the lord mayor's banquet, a highly praised piece of work. They later produced 30,000 blooms for a banquet in honour of the king and queen of Norway.
Queen Alexandra also supported the mission, and in 1912 she ordered thousands of roses which were sold on the inaugural Queen Alexandra rose day, 26 June 1912, when nearly £18,000 was collected for charitable causes. From the beginning the girls were paid a wage and given accommodation in houses in Sekforde Street, close to their work, which were rented with funds raised by an appeal. House-mothers were employed to look after them, and in this way the first ‘John Grooms home’ was established — an early step towards
the provision of specialist housing for the disabled.
In 1890 Groom got the backing of the mission committee and launched an appeal for funds with which to open an orphanage in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. Soon there were six homes — each named after a flower — housing 100 blind and disabled girls from the age of two to twelve. When old enough the girls went to local schools and then into domestic service, or else joined the flower making in London. By 1913 there were nearly 260 girls involved in the flower making, all of them blind or disabled, and earning between 10s. and 15s. a week.
Groom managed to balance the demands of his charity with a happy family life. He was a keen supporter of Chelsea Football Club and went to home games, when he would swap his trademark top hat for a flat cap. He continued as superintendent and secretary of the mission until the year before his death, when he retired in failing health. In his last year he lived at the orphanage in Clacton, where he died on 27 December 1919. He was buried in Highgate cemetery. His eldest son, Alfred, took over the mission work, and in 1932 the flower making occupied a large site at Edgware, with specialist homes around a purpose-built factory. As the demand for artificial flowers declined the range of activities increased, and disabled boys as well as girls were admitted, but the emphasis remained on their attaining a degree of independence. More than a century after its foundation the ‘John Grooms charity’ was still providing employment and homes for disabled people.