1803–1870

Introduction

Born: Jan­ua­ry 7, 1803, Lon­don, Eng­land.

Died: March 22, 1870, Fair­seat, Se­ven­oaks, Kent, Eng­land.

Buried: St. Ma­ry the Vir­gin church­yard, Stan­sted, Kent, Eng­land.

Biography

William was the son of Will­iam Hick­son, a boot and shoe ma­nu­fac­ture­r of Smith­field, Lon­don.

He stu­died in the Ne­ther­lands and Ger­ma­ny. He re­tired from the fa­mi­ly bu­si­ness in 1840 to con­cen­trate on phil­an­thro­pic pur­suits, par­ti­cu­lar­ly the cause of ele­men­ta­ry edu­ca­tion.

He edit­ed the West­mins­ter Re­view (1840–52), con­trib­ut­ed vers­es to the Brit­ish na­tion­al an­them, and is cre­dit­ed with writ­ing the pro­verb:

’Tis a lesson you should heed:
Try, try, try again.
If at first you don’t succeed,
Try, try, try again.

Works

Sources

Lyrics

Help Needed

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Hick­son (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),