Education
Born at Brockham Green near Dorking and educated at Brockham Green Village School, Thomas Burberry was apprenticed to a local draper"s shop before he opened his outfitting business in Basingstoke in 1856.
Born at Brockham Green near Dorking and educated at Brockham Green Village School, Thomas Burberry was apprenticed to a local draper"s shop before he opened his outfitting business in Basingstoke in 1856.
He is also known as the inventor of gabardine. Burberry recognised the need for promotion and publicity and ensured that Lord Kitchener and Lord Baden-Powell both wore his weatherproofs. By these means he expanded his business into one of the United Kingdom"s largest branded clothing businesses.
He retired to Abbot"s Court near Weymouth, Dorset in 1917.
He was a teetotaler and campaigned against tobacco smoking. He was also a devout Baptist who liked to hold prayer meetings every morning.
He died at his home at Hook near Basingstoke in 1926, aged 90 of unspecified causes.