John Spedan Lewis

John Spedan Lewis was born in 1885, the elder son of John Lewis, who had built a drapery shop on Oxford Street into a substantial store by driving hard bargains and paying his staff as little as he could. Spedan joined at nineteen and was made a partner at 21. Going through the accounts, he calculated that the three members of the family drew about the same as the whole workforce put together, and found he could not justify it.

A riding accident in 1909 kept him in bed for nearly two years, and he used the time to think the problem through. His father, who lived to 92 and regarded the whole thing as folly, gave him control of the loss-making Peter Jones store in Sloane Square in 1914 to keep the peace. There Spedan cut hours, published a staff newspaper in which anyone could criticise management anonymously, set up committees with real power, and in 1920 began sharing profits. The shop, which had been failing, turned round.

When his father died in 1928 he inherited the whole business and in 1929 signed the first Trust Settlement, handing it to a trust for the benefit of its employees, who became known as Partners. He took a large sum in return but well below what the shares were worth. A second settlement in 1950 completed the transfer. The Partnership bought Waitrose in 1937 and grew into one of the largest retailers in Britain.

Spedan was not an easy man; he was impatient, difficult with colleagues, and retired in 1955 unsure whether the experiment would last. He died in 1963. The Partnership is still owned by its staff.