Ramsden Balmforth (13 January 1861 â 31 December 1941) was an English-born Unitarian minister and author who spent much of his adult life in South Africa.
Balmforth was born in Huddersfield, England, in 1861, the son of Nanny (née Moorhouse) and Watts Balmforth. His father was a mechanic and a secularist.
As a young man, Balmforth joined the Fabian Society and became a friend of George Bernard Shaw. In 1886 he published a socialist-themed novel (his only work of fiction) under the pseudonym "Laon Ramsey".
In 1893, he married Agnes Ellam (1865âÂÂ1945); the couple had two daughters and one son.
In 1894, he entered Manchester College, Oxford, where he studied theology and became a Unitarian minister. After serving as minister of the Huddersfield Unitarian church, he emigrated to South Africa in 1897.
Balmforth served as minister of Cape Town's Free Protestant (Unitarian) Church from 1897âÂÂ1937, succeeding David Faure. He published a number of books and articles on theology, politics, pacifism, and literature, and was one of the first clergymen to preach on South African radio. During World War I, Balmforth co-founded, with Julia Solly, the South African Peace and Arbitration Society.
He died in Cape Town on 31 December 1941.