A Sunderland shipbuilder, he was born on 6 January 1860, and educated at Gainford Academy. His family worshipped at Dock Street UMFC Chapel, where he became the leader of a large Bible class. In 1904, assisted financially by his ship-building father, John Blumer, and by Joseph Lowes Thompson (another shipbuilder and UMFC member), he opened the Thompson Memorial Hall as a home for his class and a base for Christian social work in the riverside working-class community of Monkwearmouth. He soon abandoned his industrial commitments to devote himself entirely to the Hall, which was enlarged in 1906, and was national president of the Brotherhood Movement in 1910.