Robert Raikes Robert Raikes Robert Raikes ("the Younger") (14 September 1736 – 5 April 1811) was an English philanthropist and Anglican layman, noted for his promotion of Sunday schools. Pre-dating state schooling and by 1831 schooling 1,250,000 children, they are seen as the first precursor schools of the English state school system. Raikes was born at Ladybellegate House, Gloucester, in 1736, the eldest child of Mary Drew and Robert Raikes, a newspaper publisher. He was baptised on 24 September 1736 at St Mary de Crypt Church in Gloucester. On 23 December 1767 he married Anne Trigge, with whom he had three sons
Robert Napier Raikes and bade him farewell." " Raikes was promoted to colonel in 1866, lieutenant general in 1881 and general in 1889. He was reputed to have shot a hundred tigers. He returned to England in 1870 and later retired to Watford and Malvern. He died aged 95 on 23 March 1909. Raikes was awarded medals for the Gwalior campaign in 1843, the Second Anglo-Burmese War in 1852/3 and the Indian Rebellion. Raikes married Harriet Beckett in 1854; they had three infant daughters who died in Agra during the Indian Rebellion. Additionally, they had two daughters and four sons. Their daughters were: