John Lewis

Background

John Lewis was born in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England, and became an orphan at the age of seven.

Career

Having served as an apprentice to a local draper from the age of fourteen he moved to London to become a silk buyer in the capital, working in Peter Robinson"s Department Store at Oxford Circus by the time he was 20. Formation

In 1864 John Lewis opened his own small drapery shop, John Lewis & Company, at 132 Oxford Street (later renumbered), on part of the same site as the present John Lewis department store. The business flourished and expanded and was rebuilt in the 1880s to form an all-encompassing department store.

Further purchases

lieutenant is said that in 1905 John Lewis walked from Oxford Street to Sloane Square with twenty £1000 notes in his pocket and bought Peter Jones.

Sales at Peter Jones had been falling since 1902 and its new owner failed to reverse the trend. Dispute with Baron de Walden

Lewis engaged in a protracted legal dispute with the ground landlord of his Holles Street premises, Lord Howard de Walden.

The litigation went through the courts for twenty-three years and cost Lewis 40,000 pounds. At one point he was sent to Brixton Jail for contempt of court, and De Walden sued him for libel following his erection of placards at this stores.

The case was eventually settled amicably.

Management style

Lewis was regarded as an autocratic employer, prone to dismissing staff arbitrarily. Politically, Lewis was a Liberal.

Membership

In 1888 he was nominated to Street Marylebone Vestry, and remained a member of that body, and the successor Metropolitan Borough Council until 1919. From 1901– 1907 he was a member of the London County Council, representing West Marylebone on behalf of the Liberal-backed majority Progressive Party.

Connections

rival:

Owen Owen

aunt:

Ann Speed