10 Facts About Austin Holyoake

Austin Holyoake was a printer, publisher, and freethinker.

The younger brother and partner of the more widely known George Jacob Holyoake, Austin Holyoake was himself a significant figure in nineteenth century secularism.

Austin Holyoake was born in Birmingham on 27 October 1826 to George Holyoake and his wife Catherine Groves.

At these premises, known as Fleet Street House, The Reasoner was produced and Austin Holyoake acted as secretary.

Austin Holyoake was a member of multiple radical and reformist groups, including the Reform League, and the author of many tracts and pamphlets.

Austin Holyoake was sub-editor of Charles Bradlaugh's National Reformer from 1866 to his death, co-editing with Bradlaugh the Secular Almanac.

Austin Holyoake was, said the Secular Chronicle in 1872, 'one of those quiet, unostentatious workers who are the real bone and sinew of the Secular body - like the stage manager, without whose work the play would be incomplete, but who seldom comes before the curtain to receive the plaudits of the audience.

Austin Holyoake married his second wife, Jane Baker, in 1858 and had a son and a daughter.

Austin Holyoake died, aged 47, from consumption on 10 April 1874 at Johnson's Court, and was buried on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery with the secular service he had composed.

In 1878 The Secular Chronicle printed a profile of Austin Holyoake, written by Harriet Law, describing 'a career of usefulness cut short'.