John Spedan Lewis (22 September 1885 – 21 February 1963) was an English businessman and the founder of the

John Lewis Partnership The John Lewis Partnership plc (JLP) is a British company which operates John Lewis & Partners department stores, Waitrose & Partners supermarkets, its banking and financial services, and other retail-related activities. The privately-held pub ...

. Elder son of

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

, who owned the

department store, London, Spedan joined the business at 19 and in 1914 assumed control of Peter Jones in

Sloane Square Sloane Square is a small hard-landscaped square on the boundaries of the central London districts of Belgravia and Chelsea, located southwest of Charing Cross, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The area forms a boundary betwee ...

, London. On his father's death he formed the John Lewis Partnership and began distributing profits among its employees in 1929. He transferred control of the company to the employees in 1950 and resigned as chairman in 1955.

Early life and education

John Spedan Lewis was born in

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it ...

, London, in 1885, the elder of two sons of

and Eliza Lewis (née Baker). His middle name was in honour of his father's aunt, Ann Speed, who had raised his father from the age of eight. His brother

Oswald Oswald may refer to: People *Oswald (given name), including a list of people with the name *Oswald (surname), including a list of people with the name Fictional characters *Oswald the Reeve, who tells a tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's ''The Canterbur ...

was born in 1887. Spedan was educated at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

Career

Spedan Lewis joined his father's

department store on

Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and ...

, London, aged 19. On his 21st birthday he was given a quarter share in the business, and in 1914 assumed control of his father's second shop, Peter Jones in

, London. It was around this time that he first realised that the salaries of himself, his brother and his father were the same amount of money as the combined salaries of everyone employed by the John Lewis stores. In 1909, a serious horse-riding accident meant that he could not work for nearly two years. It was during this time that he seems to have first evolved the desire to share profits with his employees, and which grew over time in scope and detail to become the underpinnings of the John Lewis Trust and John Lewis Partnership. Assuming control of the Oxford Street store with his father's death in 1928, Lewis officially formed the John Lewis Partnership, and began the distribution of profits among its employees (known as "partners") in 1929. The essence of the partnership was that workers could “get the whole profit and the sharing is entirely among themselves.” Partnership benefit, as it was called, was distributed in the form of shares, which could be realised for cash. He completed the move towards employee-ownership in 1950, with the transfer of control to the employees. Spedan Lewis resigned as chairman in 1955, and was known within the company from that point on as "The Founder". He announced in 1960 that in his will he was leaving roughly £100,000 () to his successor, Mr Miller, to help the company.

Personal life

In 1923 Spedan Lewis married Sarah Beatrice Hunter, a graduate of

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, I ...

, and a buyer within the company from 1922. They had three children, John Hunter (1924-1932), Jill (1927-1968) and Edward Grosvener (1929-2008). Sarah Lewis became deputy chairman of the company, and remained so until her death in 1953. Throughout his life Lewis was a keen and active natural historian. From 1933 until his death he was a fellow of the

Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

, which awards its John Spedan Lewis Medal for contributions to conservation. In retirement, Spedan Lewis lived at

Longstock Park Longstock Park is in the civil parish of Longstock in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England, and forms part of the Leckford Estate (1520 ha.), wholly owned by the John Lewis Partnership. Description Formerly Longstock Manor, of ...

, near the village of

Longstock Longstock is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England. It lies on the western bank of the River Test, to the north of Stockbridge and to the west of Leckford. The parish has a population of around 450. The parish church, St Mary's, was ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. Upon his death, in accordance with his wishes he was buried at sea.

Bibliography

* ''John Spedan Lewis 1885–1963: Remembered by Some of his Contemporaries in the Centenary Year of His Birth'' with the editor being Hugh Macpherson. Mainly black and white, colour plates relating to the business of the John Lewis Partnership and links with Waitrose Supermarkets With a foreword by Peter Lewis. Includes biographies of executives, and an index.Detail from a copy of John Spedan Lewis published by John Lewis Partnership in 1985 with no ISBN * ''Partnership for all by John Spedan Lewis, founder of the John Lewis partnership : a thirty-four year old experiment in

industrial democracy Industrial democracy is an arrangement which involves workers making decisions, sharing responsibility and authority in the workplace. While in participative management organizational designs workers are listened to and take part in the decisi ...

'' (1948) * ''Fairer shares : a possible advance in civilisation and perhaps the only alternative to communism'' (1954) * ''Inflation's cause and cure'' (1958)

References

External links

Biography of John Spedan Lewis
* ttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2526147.stm BBC poll from 2002 in which John Spedan Lewis was voted as Britain's greatest business leader {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, John Spedan 20th-century English businesspeople British retail company founders English businesspeople in retailing Lewis John Spedan Lewis, John Spedan Lewis, John Spedan Burials at sea People from Marylebone Businesspeople from London Presidents of the Classical Association