John Moores

Statue of the brothers John and Cecil Moores in Liverpool

Sir John Moores , CBE (born January 25, 1896 in Barton-upon-Irwell , Lancashire , † September 25, 1993 in Formby , Liverpool ) was a British entrepreneur and philanthropist .

Moores was born the second of eight children to the mason John William Moores (1871-1919). In 1909 he left school and initially worked as a messenger in the post office in Manchester, where he was dismissed after an argument with his superior. Shortly thereafter, he was given a place on a Post Telegraphy course and was hired by the Commercial Cable Company in 1912 .

In the First World War he served as a radio operator in the British Navy from 1917.

In 1923, Moores started a football betting company with two colleagues, Colin Askham (born Colin Littlewood) and Bill Hughes . Since the Commercial Cable Company did not allow employees to do sideline jobs, they named their company after Askham's maiden name Littlewood Football Pool .

After the success initially failed to materialize, Moores paid off his co-partners in 1925 and continued to run the company on his own. In 1928 his younger brother Cecil devised a fraud prevention system. In the years that followed, Moores became wealthy in the betting business.

In 1932 he invested his profits in a mail order business (Littlewoods Mail Order Store). In 1937 the first department store in the Littlewoods chain followed in Blackpool . There were 25 branches in the UK by 1939, and by 1952 there were over 50.

In 1982, at the age of 86, Moores retired from the family business as managing director, which at the time was the largest private company in Europe.

In 1957 Moore donated the John Moores Painting Prize , which is awarded to British painters. In 1964 he established the John Moore Foundation charity .

Moores was married and had four children.

In 2002, his descendants sold Littlewoods to British entrepreneurs David and Frederick Barclay .

Honors

In 1970 Moores was made Freeman of the City of Liverpool and in 1972 Commander of the British Empire , defeated in June 1980 to a Knight Bachelor .

In 1992, among other things, Liverpool's Technical College (Liverpool Polytechnic) received university status and was renamed Liverpool John Moores University .

Web links

• LiverpoolMuseum: John Moores Painting Prize

Individual evidence

1. ^ How Liverpool began home shopping . March 17, 2010 ( bbc.co.uk [accessed January 22, 2018]).
2. ^ John Moore Foundation: Who We Are. Retrieved January 22, 2018 (UK English).