John Pounds (17 June 1766 – 1 January 1839) was a teacher and altruist born in Portsmouth, and the man most responsible for the creation of the concept of Ragged schools.

Pounds was severely crippled in his mid-teens, from falling into a dry dock at Portsmouth Dockyard, where he was apprenticed as a shipwright.

He would scour the streets of Portsmouth looking for children who were poor and homeless, taking them into his small workshop and teaching them basic reading, writing, and arithmetic skills.

A unitarian chapel named in his memory stands in Old Portsmouth[4] and his life was celebrated in a sacred cantata Greatheart: The Story of John Pounds, by the Rev.

In 2005, the John Pounds Centre was opened in Queen Street, Portsmouth to encourage "a happier and healthier lifestyle, should that be through learning, physical or social activities.