H. Samuel is a mass-market jewellery chain, operating in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. It is part of the

Signet Group Signet Jewelers Ltd. (Ratner Group 1949–1993 then Signet Group plc to September 2008) is, as of 2015, the world's largest retailer of diamond jewellery. The company is domiciled in Bermuda and headquartered in Akron, Ohio, and is listed on ...

of jewellery retailers.

History

In 1862,

Harriet Samuel Harriet Samuel (née Wolf) (8 March 1836 – 6 February 1908) was an English businesswoman and the founder of H. Samuel, one of the United Kingdom's best-known high street jewellery retailers. Life and career Harriet Wolf was born on 8 March ...

(née Wolf) took over her father-in-law

Moses Samuel Moses Samuel was a clockmaker, translator of Hebrew works and writer. Life His parents were Emanuel Menachem Samuel and Hanna Hinde; his father moved from Kempen in Posen in Silesia (now Kępno in Poland) to London. Moses with his mother moved t ...

's clock-making and silversmith business in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. Harriet moved the business to

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Market Street Market Street may refer to: *Market Street, Cambridge, England *Market Street, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia * Market Street, George Town, Penang, Malaysia *Market Street, Manchester, England *Market Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia ...

and ran the mail-order side. Her son developed the retail business, and opened the first H. Samuel retail store in Preston in 1890, closely followed by branches in

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

and throughout

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

. To accommodate the growing business, the company moved to larger headquarters in Birmingham in 1912.

After

the Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Harriet's grandsons, Gilbert Edgar and Robert Edgar, took over as chairman and vice chairman. In 1948, the company was listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

. Gilbert was appointed a

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

for political and public services, was elected a

Sheriff of the City of London Two sheriffs are elected annually for the City of London by the Liverymen of the City livery companies. Today's sheriffs have only nominal duties, but the historical officeholders had important judicial responsibilities. They have attended the ju ...

, and was elected Master of the

Clockmakers' Company The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers was established under a royal charter granted by Charles I of England, King Charles I in 1631. It ranks sixty-first among the livery companies of the City of London, and comes under the jurisdiction of the ...

. Meanwhile, the number of H. Samuel stores rose to over two hundred nationwide. After the brothers' deaths in the late 1970s, Robert's son took over as chairman. In 1984 he led an acquisition of the

James Walker Group James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

, which doubled the company's presence in the UK. H. Samuel was bought by Ratner's Jewellers and some H. Samuel stores were formerly branches of Ratner's, which were re-branded following that brand's spectacular fall from grace in 1992. In 2008, the company employed 17,200 people. There are 303 stores as of 16 February 2015,.

Acquired by Signet

The chain is now part of the

, which also owns the Ernest Jones and Leslie Davis jewellery stores in the UK. The Signet Group, listed on the London and New York stock exchanges, owns Sterling – the largest specialty jewellery retailer in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

– which operates the Kay and Jared national brands, and a further ten regional brands. In 2005 the chain launched its first

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

site.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Samuel, H. 1862 establishments in England British companies established in 1862 Jewellery retailers of the United Kingdom Retail companies based in London Retail companies established in 1862

History

Acquired by Signet

See also

External links