For 40 years, Maggs has been working to support people experiencing homelessness throughout Worcestershire. Until now, we have known very little about the man who inspired the creation of our charity. But our wonderful volunteer, Gillian, has used her expertise as a former archivist to uncover his life story.
John Cecil Maggs was born on 18 July 1940 in the Tything, Worcester, to William Henry Maggs and his wife Elsie. He was the fifth of six boys. The four eldest were born between 1923 and 1932, followed eight years later by the two youngest in 1940 (John) and 1944. William was a bricklayer and the family initially lived on North Street by the canal but, despite the growth of their family over two decades, he was frequently away from home. By 1945 the couple were living separately, and William Maggs was largely absent from his children’s lives. He died in 1971 at the age of 68.
John attended St Paul’s School until 1955, leaving at the age of 15 to begin an apprenticeship in the building trade. He was still living with his mother and younger brother Terence. His older brothers had by now left home, married and were starting their own families. Just a year later, his mother died of cancer at the age of 53. John was very close to her and deeply affected by her loss. The older brothers rallied round to help, and John was taken in by Leslie (eight years his senior) and his wife Evelyn. Leslie and Evelyn were living in a modest council house, and had just started their own family. They couldn’t provide a permanent home, so they found lodgings for John nearby. But as time went on he became depressed and started to drink heavily, withdrawing from social contact, including his family.
He continued to work as a labourer for a while and moved several times. But, in 1974, his landlord sold the house where he had his lodgings, making him homeless. Leslie and Evelyn discovered his situation and stepped in once again to offer him support and try to help him stop drinking. But they were unable to change things for him and, in 1974, John left their house and began to sleep rough on the streets of Worcester. Now aged 34, he found refuge in the basement of the Fownes Glove Factory (now the Fownes Hotel) along City Walls Road. Those who knew him during his years on the street remembered him as a decent man, who would always take the time to say hello to his fellow rough sleepers. He was threatened and abused many times, as homeless people often are, but he chose to keep his head down and survive as best he could.
In 1984, the building where John had been sleeping was to be redeveloped as a hotel and building inspectors began to survey the property. On 20 July, they found John’s body lying under a tarpaulin, his only means of keeping warm. His cause of death was recorded as congestive heart failure as a result of years of untreated alcoholism. He was buried in Astwood Cemetery in an unmarked grave.
The Fownes Glove Factory was reopened as the Fownes Hotel in October 1986. In March 2020, during the Coronavirus pandemic and the lockdowns which followed, it opened its doors to the homeless of Worcester. A skeleton staff stayed on to look after their new guests and provide a safe space, observing all the regulations required to keep everyone safe and healthy.
