Samuel Ryder
Samuel Ryder (24 March 1858 – 2 January 1936) was an English businessman, entrepreneur, golf enthusiast, and golf promoter. He originated the idea of selling garden seeds in "penny packets" and built a very successful business on the concept. At the age of 50 he became an enthusiastic golfer and then from 1923 to 1925 he, together with his brother James, started sponsoring a number of golf tournaments and matches mostly at his home club of Verulam near St Albans. From late 1925 he started employing Abe Mitchell as his private coach. In early 1926 the idea for a match between British and American professional golfers was proposed. Ryder became involved and sponsored the event. It had been his intention that the match would be the first Ryder Cup but it was later decided that the match would not be an official contest. The first official event, for which Ryder donated a gold trophy, did not take place until 1927. Early life Ryder was born at Walton-le-Dale near Preston, Lancashire. He was the fourth of the eight children of Samuel Ryder Sr. (1823/4–1904), a gardener, and Elizabeth (née Martin) (1822/3–1904), a dressmaker. He had three elder and two younger sisters, and two younger brothers. He trained as a teacher at Owens College in Manchester (now Manchester University), but did not graduate due to ill health. Ryder first worked at a shipping firm in Manchester, and then for his father, whose business has expanded to include a Nursery, florist, and seed merchant. Friction with his father led Ryder to move south to London to join a rival seed merchant. Ryder married Helen Mary (née Barnard), known as Nellie, on 20 November 1890. Business career In the 1890s, Samuel Ryder started to sell packets of seeds through the post, priced at one penny each. Other seed merchants also made postal sales, but their packets were much more expensive. He started selling from his home in St Albans, which had good mainline railway connections. He kept his stock in the garden shed of his terraced house on Folly Lane, and was assisted by his wife and daughter. The packets would be posted each Friday so that his customers, working men, would receive them for their time off on Saturday afternoons. The business grew rapidly and Ryder became wealthy. Eventually, the business moved to a large packaging workshop on Holywell Hill, employing around 100 staff. The art deco seed hall is now a Café Rouge restaurant. He established a separate herb business, Heath and Heather, with his brother James in 1922 and in 1924, the company moved to a former hat factory, which had a floor area of some . Church involvement Ryder was a committed Christian. He had been a Sunday school teacher in Sale in his youth, and became president of the Mid-Hertfordshire Sunday School Union in 1911. He joined the Independent Chapel in Spicer Street in 1895, the only Congregational Church in St Albans at that time. He assisted the minister,