Stanton Coit

Born on August 11, 1857, Stanton George Coit was an American-born reformer who became one of the best-known leaders of the Ethical movement in Britain. He moved to London in the late 1880s, became a British citizen in 1903, and devoted much of his life to promoting an approach to religion centered on ethics, character, and social responsibility.

Coit is closely associated with the South Place Ethical Society and with the spread of ethical societies across Britain. Accounts of his career credit him with helping to found dozens of these groups, and he wrote and lectured widely on moral education, religion, and public life.

He died on February 15, 1944. Remembered as a public speaker, organizer, and advocate of ethical humanism, he played an important part in shaping a nontraditional religious and moral movement in Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.