JOHN SPEDAN LEWIS: BORN 1885

John Spedan Lews gifted the London department stores he inherited to the staff, creating the employee-owned John Lewis Partnership. It was an extraordinary and enlightened act of generosity.

As well as being an enlightened employer he was a considerable patron of architecture. It was under his leadership that William Crabtree designed the striking 1930s Peter Jones department store in Sloane square. It is Grade II listed, and has been sensitively preserved during several renovations.

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LIFE

John Lewis Oxford Street store.

John Spedan Lewis (22 September 1885 – 21 February 1963) was an English businessman and the founder of the John Lewis Partnership. Elder son of John Lewis, who owned the John Lewis department store, London, Spedan joined the business at 19 and in 1914 assumed control of Peter Jones in Sloane Square, London. On his father's death he formed the John Lewis Partnership and began distributing profits among its employees in 1929.

Peter Jones, Sloane Square. Part of the John Lewis Partnership.

He transferred control of the company to the employees in 1950 and resigned as chairman in 1955. He was an exceptionally benevolent employer, and a pioneer of employee ownership. He effectively gifted the company to its employees. He made arrangements for the employees (known as partners) to be paid an annual profit share pro rata to their salaries, and to control the business. He also invested heavily in the well being of the partners, including the provision of holiday hotels for their exclusive use, for example in the Lake District and Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour.