George Williams began his career as a draper’s apprentice, and was converted through reading a book by the American evangelist Charles Finney. He joined a draper’s firm in London and rose to be a partner. Williams was deeply interested in the wellbeing and spiritual welfare of his fellow employees, and he was an advocate of temperance and an opponent of tobacco and gambling. In 1844 twelve young men, all but one fellow employees, met in Williams’s rooms to form the Young Men’s Christian Association.
The goal was to win other young men to faith in Christ. Lord Shaftesbury accepted the presidency of the Y.M.C.A. in 1851, which he held until his death in 1886. Williams himself then became president for the rest of his life. He worked tirelessly to develop the Y.M.C.A., which spread throughout the British Empire and the United States. A world alliance was formed in Paris in 1855. In 1894, upon the golden jubilee of the London ‘Y’, Williams was knighted by Queen Victoria. Besides his work with the Y.M.C.A., he was an active participant in the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Church Missionary Society and several other Christian organizations.