Freshwater, Will; Freshwater, A. (Nancy)

Will Freshwater was born in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, England, on 1 November 1872. He attended school locally and then was apprenticed to a local cabinet maker at the age of 14. Freshwater became a Sunday school teacher and began accompanying preachers from the town's Independent Chapel into some of the villages in the area. He also became interested in evangelical work at this time.

On the completion of his apprenticeship, he went to Birmingham becoming a member of the city's Westminster Road Congregational Church in December 1894. He continued with Sunday school work and evangelised in lodging houses open-air meetings, and grew interested in the Church's missionary work which was fostered by the minister, the Rev. Charles Deeble. After discussing his ambition with Deeble, in 1899 Freshwater decided to become a full-time missionary, and in September 1899 he was admitted to Harley College, the headquarters of the East London Institute for Home and Foreign Missions, in Bow, London.

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