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John Spedan Lewis Born 1885. Retailer who gifted his business to its employees. Available online at www.livesretold.co.uk Contents 1. John Lewis Senior 2. Revolutionary Ideas 3. The Gazette 4. The Partnership is Born 5. Indoor Games and Amateur Dramatics 6. Leckford Abbas 7. Residential Clubs 8. A Case Study in Employee Ownership 9. Peter Jones 10. Waitrose This life story of John Spedan Lewis was compiled and archived in 2021, with acknowledgement and thanks, from the John Lewis Memory Store at https://johnlewismemorystore.org.uk. 1 1. John Lewis Senior John Lewis Senior as a young man in 1870. John Lewis senior was born in 1836 in Shepton Mallet, Somerset. By 1844, at only 8 years old, he was an orphan, and he and his siblings were subsequently brought up by members of his extended family. John and two of his sisters probably lived with an aunt by the name of Christian Speed. Many hold that the ‘Spedan’ element of ‘John Spedan Lewis’ came from a reversed amalgamation of Christian Speed’s name. At the age of fourteen, John Lewis began an apprenticeship at a shop in Wells. After gaining much-needed experience in the industry, and travelling across the country from Somerset to Liverpool, Lewis moved to London, and became the youngest silk buyer in London at a shop owned by Peter Robinson on the corner of Oxford Street and Regent Street. In 1864, after saving hard and being helped financially by his sisters, Lewis took the decision to go into business himself, and took the lease on a small shop at 132 Oxford Street. His first day’s taking were recorded as 16/4d, equivalent to about £75 today. 2 A street view of Oxford Street from the late 1700's, showing the location of number 132. The business started to grow and expanded into neighbouring properties. During the 1880s, much of the shop was rebuilt to accommodate the business’ growth. John Lewis’ trading policy was simple – a wide assortment, low margins, and fair dealing – and… he never advertised. It was then in 1884 that John Lewis married Eliza Baker, a teacher who had been one of the first women to attend Cambridge University. They had two sons, John Spedan Lewis, born in 1885, and Oswald, born in 1887. After their education at Westminster School, both boys followed their father into the family business. Little did they know, one of the boys would revolutionise British retail and implement a business model that had not been seen before. John Lewis Senior and the original Oxford Street shop in 1885 (right). Three weeks in prison Mr Lewis undoubtedly got the new century off to a bad start. In 1902, a legal dispute flared up between him and Baron de Walden that would last for over twenty years. Lord Howard de Walden was the ground landlord of the estate on which John Lewis was located, and the two argued bitterly about what Mr Lewis could and could not do with his shop. 3 Characteristically, Mr Lewis refused to back down. At one point, he was sent to prison at HMP Brixton for three weeks for contempt of court in 1903. The dispute rolled on. In 1911, Lewis was sued by de Walden for libel, after large placards were erected in the windows of John Lewis voicing Mr Lewis’ disgust at the whole affair. Spedan Towers, Hampstead, the childhood home of John Spedan Lewis. The house was bought by John Lewis senior in the late 1880s. Apparently, whilst looking for a new home for his young family, he hired a hansom cab and drove out in a different direction each day with his wife. After one trip he returned home to tell her that one house she really liked had been sold, but later confessed it had been bought by him. He renamed it Spedan Towers, and the family lived there until his sons grew up. He commuted to his shop in Oxford Street each day, initially in his carriage and then in a Rolls Royce. He lived there until his death in 1928. It was then probably empty for some time and was sold in 1936. During WWII it was requisitioned and housed interned German scientists. In 1951 it became a nurses hostel and training establishment, and was demolished in the early 1970s after being bought by Camden Council.(Caption archived in 2021, with acknowledgement and thanks, from the London Remembers website at www.londonremembers.com. ______________________________________________________________________ 4 2. Revolutionary Ideas On his 21st birthday John Spedan Lewis (the eldest son of John Lewis Senior) received a quarter share in his father’s business, valued at £50,000, which entitled him to a quarter of the profits of the Oxford Street shop. Shortly afterwards he also became a director of Peter Jones Ltd which had previously been bought by his father in £1000 worth of cash notes! The two younger Lewises encouraged the shop staff to take an interest in sport and started a staff magazine, the Byron Quarterly. This was the early edition of the Gazette magazine, which is still produced in the Partnership today and handed out to Partners weekly. After a few years, Spedan became uneasy that he, his brother and his father were receiving more income from the family business than all their employees put together. After a riding accident forced him to have two operations and a long period of convalescence, he thought deeply about his own future and that of the business. He was eager to share his profits with his staff and to redistribute money which was being kept in reserve. “The supreme purpose of the John Lewis Partnership is simply the happiness of its members.” In order to do this, he decided to make the business into a limited liability company, distributing the profits to the employees in the form of shares in proportion to their pay. His father’s reaction to this suggestion – and to his inevitable smaller share of the retained profits – was somewhat negative: ‘Who do you suppose would bear the carking cares of business for such a miserable remuneration as this would mean!?’ In 1914, John Lewis Senior handed over the entire managerial control of the Peter Jones shop to Spedan, who became the shop’s chairman and its nominal managing director. He was then free to start putting his forward- thinking ideas into practice. 5 Spedan’s first move was to shorten the working day by an hour and to start a departmental system of commission [He also set up the staff committees – the forerunner of the Committees for Communication – in which elected representatives of the rank and file held regular meetings with him in the absence of their managers]. Over the next few years he made further changes at Peter Jones, giving the staff a third week’s holiday, taking on well educated people for management posts, and starting The Gazette. In 1919, he set up a staff council (the forerunner of today’s Partnership, Divisional and Branch Councils). Early staff councils were always well attended. Spedan’s first formal profit-sharing scheme was approved in 1920 and the first distributions were made that summer in the form of shares in Peter Jones Limited. From 10 April that same year, The Gazette began to refer to the staff as Partners, and the famous slogan ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ was first used at Peter Jones in 1925. Spedan’s mother passed away in 1924 and in 1926, Oswald gave his brother his share in the Oxford Street shop, and control of both stores were passed to Spedan. Although, his father was still very much involved with the day-to-day running of the business. Spedan immediately started to apply his ‘Partnership’ ideals to the Oxford Street shop as well, and bought the Odney Club in Cookham, Berkshire (a Partner benefit that still remains today). ____________________________________________________________ 6 3. The Gazette The opening page of the first ever copy of The Gazette. 7 The Gazette was printed for the first time ever on Saturday 16th March 1918, and it has been published weekly ever since. The Gazette served as an organ through which Partners could stay informed on the important aspects of the John Lewis Partnership. If they so wished, they could interact and directly impact the Partnership’s very fabric. The paper was unique as through its Letters section, it allowed Partners to openly praise, criticise and vent frustrations on any subject that took their fancy. ____________________________________________________________ 8 4. The Partnership is Born The first Trust Settlement, 1929. On 18 April 1929, one year after his father had passed away, Spedan Lewis signed the First Trust Settlement, transferring his own shares in John Lewis Ltd, Peter Jones Ltd and the Odney Estate to a board of trustees on behalf of the Partners. He also created the John Lewis Partnership Limited. Twenty-one years later, on 26 April 1950, Spedan signed the Second Trust Settlement, effectively ‘giving’ the Partnership to the people who work in it. By this act, he transferred all his remaining shares and his ultimate control to the trustees. The John Lewis Partnership expanded during the remainder of the 20th century into the business we know today. ____________________________________________________________ 9 5. Indoor Games and Amateur Dramatics Indoor Games Chess has always been taken seriously by the John Lewis Partnership. This was primarily because, as Sir Bernard Miller once noted, the game was probably the Founder’s main love. John Spedan Lewis adored chess, and equally, absolutely hated to lose at it. Spedan Lewis believed that chess mirrored life and had real value as a ‘training for business’.

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