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[[File:William_Winstanley_Pearson.JPG|thumb|William Winstanley Pearson]]
'''William Winstanley Pearson''' was a pastor and educator, born in Manchester (U.K.) on 7 May 1881, and who died in Italy on 25 September 1923.<ref>[http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb12323270t French National Library]</ref><ref>[http://www.visvabharati.ac.in/W-W-Pearson.html visvabharati.ac.in]</ref>

Pearson was the son of the Reverend Samuel Pearson, a Congregationalist minister, and his wife Bertha Eliza Pearson (née Crosfield).<ref name="ODNB">{{Cite ODNB|last=Gupta|first=Uma Das|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/107431|title=Pearson, William Winstanley [Willie]|date=2016}}</ref>

He was a science graduate from Cambridge University, and went to Calcutta in 1907, where he taught Botany at the London Missionary College in Bhavanipur. He returned to England in 1911 and met [[Rabindranath Tagore]] in his own house in London. While in India, he met [[Mahatma Gandhi]], and became a supporter of his action. He was a teacher in Tagore's school, [[Bolpur]], and then in [[Shantiniketan]]. He translated some of Tagore's works into English.

In 1916, he became Tagore's secretary, and followed him on his journey to Japan and the United States. While in Japan, Tagore introduced him to Paul and [[Mirra Alfassa|Mirra]] Richard, disciples of [[Sri Aurobindo]] : they had a very strong influence on him. When Mirra settled at [[Puducherry (city)|Pondicherry]] in 1920 and was known as The Mother, Pearson went there to meet Sri Aurobindo. In 1920-1921 again, he accompanied Tagore both in Europe and America.

Pearson was fatally injured in an accident on September 18, 1923, when he "fell down from a train" that was traveling from [[Milan]] to [[Florence]], and transported to a hospital in [[Pistoia]]. According to a witness at his deathbed, Pearson's last words were "My only and one love— India" <ref>Chinmoy Guha, ''Bridging East and West: Rabindranath Tagore and Romain Rolland Correspondence (1919–1940)'' (Oxford University Press India, 2018)</ref>

== Works ==

* Introduction to a 1909 edition of ''[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.511447/page/n3/mode/2up Duties of Man]'' by [[Giuseppe Mazzini|Joseph Mazzini]]
* ''[https://archive.org/details/forindiawithintr00pearuoft For India]'', 1917
* ''[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.98070 Shantiniketan: the Bolpur School of Rabindranath Tagore]'', 1917
* ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=lBZLAQAAMAAJ The Dawn of a New Age, and Other Essays]'', 1922

== Sources ==
* Natl. bibliogr. of Indian lit. / gen. ed. B. S. Kesavan; V. Y. Kulkarni, 1962, vol 1, p. 339

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*[https://www.natalia.org.za/Files/44/Article%20Nauriya%20pp%2070%20to%2078.pdf William Winstanley Pearson: The Natal Experience] by Anil Nauriya (''Natalia'' 44 (2014), pp. 70–78)
*[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340827445_English_Anti-Imperialism_and_the_Varied_Lights_of_Willie_Pearson_Anil_Nauriya_Nehru_Memorial_Museum_and_Library_2014_NMML_Occasional_Paper English Anti-Imperialism and the Varied Lights of Willie Pearson] by Anil Nauriya ([[Nehru Memorial Museum & Library]], NMML Occasional Paper, History and Society, New Series 57, 2014)

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearson, William}}
{{morecat|date=November 2023}}
[[Category:1881 births]]
[[Category:1923 deaths]]
[[Category:Schoolteachers from Greater Manchester]]
[[Category:People from Manchester]]

William W. Pearson - Revision history

DeangeloSchwing: added data