Charles Henry Foyle (18 March 1878 – 9 December 1948) was an English businessman who invented the

folding carton The folding carton created the packaging industry as it is known today, beginning in the late 19th century. The process involves folding carton made of paperboard that is printed, laminated, cut, then folded and glued. The cartons are shipped f ...

. He founded Boxfoldia in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

in 1920, a company that was finally sold in 2003. In 1940, he put £7,000 () into a trust for general charitable objectives, including medical and educational facilities and housing for the working classes. Trustees were drawn from the City Council, the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

and from the founder's family, and additional advisors were nominated from the company. The trust had an annual income of £5,500 by 1952 (). The C. H. Foyle Trust later adapted its memorandum to support educational, recreational and artistic activities of a charitable nature, with an emphasis on those from deprived areas in the West Midlands, with an income of £148,683 in 2008 (). Over its seventy years, the Trust supported many individuals and schools and hundreds of charitable organisations, in both educational and other fields, with grants ranging from a few tens to many thousands of pounds. Major beneficiaries have included the

Midlands Arts Centre MAC (stylized as mac; formerly and legally Midlands Arts Centre) is a non-profit arts centre situated in Cannon Hill Park, Edgbaston, Birmingham, England. It was established in 1962 and is registered as an educational charity which hosts art e ...

, th
Bramall Music Building
at the University of Birmingham, th
Birmingham Museum and Arts Gallery
for the

Staffordshire Hoard The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork . It consists of almost 4,600 items and metal fragments, amounting to a total of of gold, of silver and some 3,500 pieces of garnet cloisonné je ...

, and Selly Oak Hospital for th
Uli Nimptsch
statue
Compassion
Charles Henry Foyle was born in

Hoxton Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, England. It was Historic counties of England, historically in the county of Middlesex until 1889. Hoxton lies north-east of the City of London, is considered to be a part of London's East End ...

, London. His brothers

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

and Gilbert Foyle founded

Foyles Foyles, a trading name of Waterstones Booksellers Limited (formerly W & G Foyle Ltd.), is a bookseller with a chain of seven stores in England. It is best known for its flagship store in Charing Cross Road, London. Foyles was once listed in ...

bookshop in London. He privately published ''Alice Through The Paper-Mill'',Alt URL
/ref> an ''Alice in Wonderland''-inspired satire on war-time paper control regulations with 12 illustrations by Arthur Wragg.

References

1878 births 1948 deaths Businesspeople from Birmingham, West Midlands 20th-century English inventors British philanthropists {{England-engineer-stub