John Alfred Langford

John Alfred Langford (12 September 1823 – 24 January 1903) was an English journalist, poet and antiquary in Birmingham.

[1] After attending a private school in Brixhall Street, Deritend (1829–33), Langford entered his father's chair-making business at ten, and was apprenticed when thirteen in 1836.

In August 1847 he joined the new Unitarian Church of the Saviour, founded by George Dawson, originator of the doctrine of the "Civic Gospel".

In the winter of 1850–1 he taught evening classes in the schools of Dawson's church, gave up chair-making, and opened a small news vendor's and bookseller's shop.

[1] In 1848, he became one of a group of friends who met regularly at one another's houses to discuss philosophical, political and social matters.

In 1850, three of the members, Langford, William Harris and Henry Latham, published a volume of poems that had emerged from these sessions, entitled Thoughts from the Inner Circle.

This was well received, but a commercial failure: it merged with the Birmingham Mercury in 1857, and ceased publication entirely in November 1858.

By his second wife, Mary Anne, oldest daughter of F. Price, a printer, whom he married 7 April 1849, he had six children.