Can
there be anyone in the western world who hasn’t visited a Marks & Spencer store? My mum liked their
stuff so much she bought nearly all her clothes from there. When she died my
dad found mostly M&S stuff in her wardrobes (including 20 dark blue
skirts.)
On a recent run into the Staffordshire
countryside I decided to go have a sandwich and coffee at the church in
Whittington where his business partner Thomas Spencer is buried. My belly was
rumbling when I arrived at the quite churchyard amid suburbia. I decided I’d
only have something to eat as a reward for finding the headstone. This can
sometimes take 30-50 minutes however I found it quickly and was able to guzzle
peanut butter sandwiches quickly.
To say M&S in now a retail colossus not much is known
about Thomas and there’s only one photograph of him on the internet. He was
born in Skipton in Yorkshire and through his thirties he worked as a cashier
for a wholesaler called Isaac Dewhirst. Aged forty he married Agnes in Leeds
and two years later a business opportunity arose. One of their customers was a
n ambitious Jew called Thomas Marks who was needing to spread his commercial wings.
He asked Isaac Dewhirst if he’d like to form a retail business but Isaac
refused and suggested one of his employees Thomas. Thomas agreed and they
formed Marks & Spencer. Thomas invested his savings of £300 to cover his
half of the business which in 1894 was worth £8600 today.
They were a
winning combination: Thomas was inside running the office and warehouse and
Michael Marks was outside running the series of market stalls . In the early
years Thomas’s was probably the most effective in that he’d used built up many
vital contacts while working for Dewhirsts. He dealt directly with
manufacturers he already knew personally and was able to levy steep discounts.
Soon they were
to open stores in Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Sheffield,
Bristol, Hull, Sunderland and Cardiff. Things were so healthy he was only 45
when he oversaw the building of a new huge warehouse in Manchester. This would
become the honeypot around which the empire buzzed, supplying thirty-six branches.
Soon they had stores in Wales (Swansea) and they ventures down south and soon
had seven branches in big London.
In 1903 aged
51 the £300 investment was worth£15,000 (about £1.5 million in today’s money)
and he retired. Both the M&S founders passed on their thriving business to
their sons but neither got to enjoy a long life. Michael Marks died of a heart
attack aged 51 and Thomas died aged 54. How did this Yorkshire man end up lying
in a grave in Staffordshire? He and Agnes bought a farm in Lichfield to fulfil
a long-held dream but it only lasted for three years and he died aged 54 (even
though it say 55 on the headstone). Agnes returned to her roots in
Middlesborough and outlived her husband by 54 years.
As usual I had a stroll around the cemetery. I’m
drawn to war graves and there was a clump of them together. I always look at
the name and age of the deceased and do a salute. I’ve been gawking at these
war graves for years but never seen one so young - one poor lad was sixteen
years old - sixteen! He must have lied to have joined up. I was a naïve greasy
spotty lad at school when I was sixteen. I had done the Rubik’s Cube once by
then but never been up a ladder. Poor kid (see last photograph.)
Initially M&S
would have had a stall outside Leeds Market…
From small
starts…
The grass has
been mown around the cemeteries famous resident…
Strolling by the
war graves…
…I spotted a
sixteen year old….sixteen!