Frederick William Rushbrooke (9 December 1861 - 1953) was the founder of
Halfords, the
United Kingdom's largest chain of
cycle
Cycle, cycles, or cyclic may refer to:
Anthropology and social sciences
* Cyclic history, a theory of history
* Cyclical theory, a theory of American political history associated with Arthur Schlesinger, Sr.
* Social cycle, various cycles in soc ...
shops.
Career
The son of a miller and confectioner from
Willenhall in
Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...
, Frederick Rushbrooke initially established himself in business in 1892 as a
wholesale ironmonger in
Birmingham.
[And it's all thanks to a passion for a penny-farthing bicycle]
The Times, 30 May 2005 For recreation he enjoyed cycling on his
pennyfarthing.
[ In 1902 he opened a branch of his business in Halford Street in ]Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city l ...
and called it the ''Halford Cycle Shop''.[
He bought Burcot Grange, a country house in Burcot in 1927 but ten years later decided to donate it to the Birmingham & Midland Eye Hospital as an annex to treat inflammation of the ]eye
Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and conv ...
.[Burcot Grange: History]
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He died in 1953.
/ref>
Family
In 1896 he married Lily Jenks Wilkinson[ and they had a son and two daughters.][
]
References
1861 births
1953 deaths
English businesspeople
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