Julius Drewe
Encyclopedia
Julius Charles Hendicott Drewe (surname originally spelt Drew) (4 April 1856 – 20 November 1931) was an English businessman, retailer and entrepreneur, known for being the creator of the successful Home and Colonial Stores
, as well as for the building of Castle Drogo
in Devon as his family's country home.
, Bedfordshire, to George S.H. Drew and Mary (née Peek) a french artist.
Julius was the third youngest of eight children. His siblings Mary, Edith, Ada, Reginald, William, Anna and Evelyn all moved, either to different parts of the United Kingdom or to the Colonies, including British North America
. He was the nephew of Richard Peek
, one of the Sheriffs of the City of London
.
As a child he attended the renowned and prestigious Bedford School
between 1862 and 1874, a traditional private boarding school
founded by King Edward VI. After leaving school at eighteen years of age, Julius started his working life as a tea buyer in China and opened his first tea shop four years later in Liverpool
in 1878, aged only twenty-one.
In 1883 he moved to London to expand his enterprises. The business developed rapidly under the name of Home and Colonial Stores
. After only six years, in 1889, he and his partner, John Musker, were able to retire from active participation in the firm as extremely rich men. Drew was only thirty-two years old. In 1919 they sold their outstanding shares in the business for £3.5 million (estimated at £193 million today), a vastly huge sum in those days.
Julius married Frances (née Richardson), on 26 September 1890. With his brother William he had always taken a keen interest in the history of the Drew family. A genealogist convinced him that his family was descended from the Norman aristocratic Drew family of Broadhembury
near Honiton
in Devon, who had controlled many acres of land since the Norman Conquest. This suggested that Julius descended also from the royal House of York
through Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York
's marriage to Isabella of Castile, Duchess of York
. After discovering this, he bought land there in 1901 and installed his brother William, a wealthy and established barrister
, at Broadhembury House; he later died there on 25 March 1938.
Julius's first cousin was Richard Peek, the rector of Drewsteignton
(named after Drogo de Teigne, alleged forefather of the Drewes). Julius stayed on several occasions with his cousin and it must have been here that he conceived the idea of building a castle
on the home ground of his ancestor. He found an ideal site, and in 1910 he bought about 450 acres (1.8 km²) south and west of the village; by the time of his death he had bought up an estate of 1,500 acres. He then went to Edwin Lutyens
, a prominent architect of the time, and asked him to build his castle. According to his son Basil, he did so on the advice of William Hudson, proprietor of the Country Life Magazine
, who was both a patron and a champion of Lutyens. Drewe was now 54 years old, but he still had time, energy and money to create his new family seat. On 4 April 1911, Drewe's 55th birthday, the first foundation stone was laid.
The castle took many years to complete, with the First World War and the economic downturn
causing many delays. Castle Drogo was finally completed in 1930, a year before Julius died. Castle Drogo was the last castle to be built in England, and probably the last private house in the country to be built entirely of granite
. It is now a Grade I listed building.
in central Paris. Julius' grandfather, George H Drew the 1st, was born in Belgravia
, London
in 1790 but moved to their country retreat as permanent residence with his family to South Hams
Devonshire aged four years old. George moved back to London aged twenty-one and became a tea merchant during the birth of the Industrial Revolution
.
The Drew family traditionally had close ties also with French aristocracy in the eighteenth century by the linage of Louis XIII of France
through his great-granddaughter. As a result of this, Julius' great-grandfather, Thomas Drew was born 1745 in Gironde
, France. Thomas later migrated back to England with his father at a young age, years before the outbreak of the French Revolution
.
Julius and Frances Drewe had five children, Adrian, Basil, Cedric
, Mary and Frances. Their eldest son, Adrian Hendicott Drewe, was the seventh 'Drewe' (previosuly Drew) to be educated at Eton College
and Oxford University. He died during the First World War on the frontline in 1917 from overwhelming intake of mustard gas
in Ypres
, France
, alongside 80-100 men (approx) from his platoon
. His death was a terrible loss and julius never fully recovered from the shock. Basil, their second eldest, inherited Castle Drogo
after Julius's death in 1931 after studying for seven years in central London
. Cedric
, their youngest son, studied at the University of Birmingham
between 1916 and 1920. He was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1924, and in 1953 was appointed into the Royal Victorian Order
as a Knight Commander. He inherited the Broadhembury
properties after Julius's death.
After Julius's death, his wife Frances and her son Basil continued to live at the castle. Frances Drewe died in 1954 and Basil was then joined at Drogo by his son Anthony and his wife. In 1974, Anthony and his son, Dr Christopher Drewe, gave Castle Drogo and 600 acres (2.4 km²) of the surrounding land to the National Trust
. It was the first 20th-century property the charity acquired.
Home and Colonial Stores
Home & Colonial Stores was once one of the United Kingdom's largest retail chains. Its formation of a vast chain of retail stores in the late 1920s is seen as the first step in the development of a UK food retail market dominated by a small number of food multiples.-History:The business was founded...
, as well as for the building of Castle Drogo
Castle Drogo
Castle Drogo is a country house near Drewsteignton, Devon, England. It was built in the 1910s and 1920s for Julius Drewe to designs by architect Edwin Lutyens, and is a Grade I listed building...
in Devon as his family's country home.
Early life and career
Julius Charles Hendicott Drew (he changed the spelling to Drewe in 1913) was born in AmpthillAmpthill
Ampthill is a small town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, between Bedford and Luton, with a population of about 6,000. It is administered by Central Bedfordshire Council. A regular market has taken place on Thursdays for centuries.-History:...
, Bedfordshire, to George S.H. Drew and Mary (née Peek) a french artist.
Julius was the third youngest of eight children. His siblings Mary, Edith, Ada, Reginald, William, Anna and Evelyn all moved, either to different parts of the United Kingdom or to the Colonies, including British North America
British North America
British North America is a historical term. It consisted of the colonies and territories of the British Empire in continental North America after the end of the American Revolutionary War and the recognition of American independence in 1783.At the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775 the British...
. He was the nephew of Richard Peek
Richard Peek
Richard Peek was a tea merchant in London from modest beginnings in Loddiswell in Devon. He rose to be one of the Sheriffs of the City of London. He was a known abolitionist and philanthropist in his home area...
, one of the Sheriffs of the City of London
Sheriffs of the City of London
There are two Sheriffs of the City of London. The sheriffs are elected annually by the Liverymen of the Livery Companies, and it is a requirement for a Lord Mayor of the City of London to previously have served as a Sheriff. Sheriffs have only nominal duties now, but previously had large judicial...
.
As a child he attended the renowned and prestigious Bedford School
Bedford School
Bedford School is not to be confused with Bedford Modern School or Bedford High School or Old Bedford School in Bedford, TexasBedford School is an HMC independent school for boys located in the town of Bedford, England, United Kingdom...
between 1862 and 1874, a traditional private boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
founded by King Edward VI. After leaving school at eighteen years of age, Julius started his working life as a tea buyer in China and opened his first tea shop four years later in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
in 1878, aged only twenty-one.
In 1883 he moved to London to expand his enterprises. The business developed rapidly under the name of Home and Colonial Stores
Home and Colonial Stores
Home & Colonial Stores was once one of the United Kingdom's largest retail chains. Its formation of a vast chain of retail stores in the late 1920s is seen as the first step in the development of a UK food retail market dominated by a small number of food multiples.-History:The business was founded...
. After only six years, in 1889, he and his partner, John Musker, were able to retire from active participation in the firm as extremely rich men. Drew was only thirty-two years old. In 1919 they sold their outstanding shares in the business for £3.5 million (estimated at £193 million today), a vastly huge sum in those days.
Julius married Frances (née Richardson), on 26 September 1890. With his brother William he had always taken a keen interest in the history of the Drew family. A genealogist convinced him that his family was descended from the Norman aristocratic Drew family of Broadhembury
Broadhembury
Broadhembury is a village and civil parish in the East Devon district of Devon, England, about 5 miles north-west of Honiton.According to the 2001 census the village had a population of 654...
near Honiton
Honiton
Honiton is a town and civil parish in East Devon, situated close to the River Otter, north east of Exeter in the county of Devon. The town's name is pronounced in two ways, and , each pronunciation having its adherents...
in Devon, who had controlled many acres of land since the Norman Conquest. This suggested that Julius descended also from the royal House of York
House of York
The House of York was a branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet, three members of which became English kings in the late 15th century. The House of York was descended in the paternal line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, the fourth surviving son of Edward III, but also represented...
through Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York
Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York
Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, 1st Earl of Cambridge, KG was a younger son of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault, the fourth of the five sons who lived to adulthood, of this Royal couple. Like so many medieval princes, Edmund gained his identifying nickname from his...
's marriage to Isabella of Castile, Duchess of York
Isabella of Castile, Duchess of York
Infanta Isabella of Castile, Duchess of York was a daughter ofKing Peter of Castile and María de Padilla. She was a younger sister of Constance, Duchess of Lancaster....
. After discovering this, he bought land there in 1901 and installed his brother William, a wealthy and established barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
, at Broadhembury House; he later died there on 25 March 1938.
Castle Drogo
Drewsteignton
Drewsteignton is a village and civil parish within the administrative area of West Devon, England, also lying within the Dartmoor National Park. It is located in the Teign valley, west of Exeter and south east of Okehampton...
(named after Drogo de Teigne, alleged forefather of the Drewes). Julius stayed on several occasions with his cousin and it must have been here that he conceived the idea of building a castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
on the home ground of his ancestor. He found an ideal site, and in 1910 he bought about 450 acres (1.8 km²) south and west of the village; by the time of his death he had bought up an estate of 1,500 acres. He then went to Edwin Lutyens
Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, OM, KCIE, PRA, FRIBA was a British architect who is known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era...
, a prominent architect of the time, and asked him to build his castle. According to his son Basil, he did so on the advice of William Hudson, proprietor of the Country Life Magazine
Country Life (magazine)
Country Life is a British weekly magazine, based in London at 110 Southwark Street, and owned by IPC Media, a Time Warner subsidiary.- Topics :The magazine covers the pleasures and joys of rural life, as well as the concerns of rural people...
, who was both a patron and a champion of Lutyens. Drewe was now 54 years old, but he still had time, energy and money to create his new family seat. On 4 April 1911, Drewe's 55th birthday, the first foundation stone was laid.
The castle took many years to complete, with the First World War and the economic downturn
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
causing many delays. Castle Drogo was finally completed in 1930, a year before Julius died. Castle Drogo was the last castle to be built in England, and probably the last private house in the country to be built entirely of granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
. It is now a Grade I listed building.
Family
Julius' father, George S.H. Drew the 2nd, born 22 October 1818 in Kensington, London to an affluent, inner city family. He was a middle class clergyman and serial publisher. Julius' mother was Mary Abelle Richardson (née Peek) born 12 July 1823 within the 16th arrondissement of Paris in Passy, an artist, whose family owned a women's garment business located in Le MaraisLe Marais
Le Marais is a historic district in Paris, France. Long the aristocratic district of Paris, it hosts many outstanding buildings of historic and architectural importance...
in central Paris. Julius' grandfather, George H Drew the 1st, was born in Belgravia
Belgravia
Belgravia is a district of central London in the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Noted for its immensely expensive residential properties, it is one of the wealthiest districts in the world...
, London
Greater London
Greater London is the top-level administrative division of England covering London. It was created in 1965 and spans the City of London, including Middle Temple and Inner Temple, and the 32 London boroughs. This territory is coterminate with the London Government Office Region and the London...
in 1790 but moved to their country retreat as permanent residence with his family to South Hams
South Hams
South Hams is a local government district on the south coast of Devon, England with its headquarters in the town of Totnes. It contains the towns of Dartmouth, Kingsbridge, Ivybridge, Salcombe — the largest of which is Ivybridge with a population of 16,056....
Devonshire aged four years old. George moved back to London aged twenty-one and became a tea merchant during the birth of the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
.
The Drew family traditionally had close ties also with French aristocracy in the eighteenth century by the linage of Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...
through his great-granddaughter. As a result of this, Julius' great-grandfather, Thomas Drew was born 1745 in Gironde
Gironde
For the Revolutionary party, see Girondists.Gironde is a common name for the Gironde estuary, where the mouths of the Garonne and Dordogne rivers merge, and for a department in the Aquitaine region situated in southwest France.-History:...
, France. Thomas later migrated back to England with his father at a young age, years before the outbreak of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
.
Julius and Frances Drewe had five children, Adrian, Basil, Cedric
Cedric Drewe
Sir Cedric Drewe, KCVO was a British Conservative Party politician. He was the son of Julius Drewe, the English businessman, retailer and entrepreneur....
, Mary and Frances. Their eldest son, Adrian Hendicott Drewe, was the seventh 'Drewe' (previosuly Drew) to be educated at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and Oxford University. He died during the First World War on the frontline in 1917 from overwhelming intake of mustard gas
Sulfur mustard
The sulfur mustards, or sulphur mustards, commonly known as mustard gas, are a class of related cytotoxic, vesicant chemical warfare agents with the ability to form large blisters on exposed skin. Pure sulfur mustards are colorless, viscous liquids at room temperature...
in Ypres
Ypres
Ypres is a Belgian municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Ypres and the villages of Boezinge, Brielen, Dikkebus, Elverdinge, Hollebeke, Sint-Jan, Vlamertinge, Voormezele, Zillebeke, and Zuidschote...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, alongside 80-100 men (approx) from his platoon
Platoon
A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two to four sections or squads and containing 16 to 50 soldiers. Platoons are organized into a company, which typically consists of three, four or five platoons. A platoon is typically the smallest military unit led by a commissioned officer—the...
. His death was a terrible loss and julius never fully recovered from the shock. Basil, their second eldest, inherited Castle Drogo
Castle Drogo
Castle Drogo is a country house near Drewsteignton, Devon, England. It was built in the 1910s and 1920s for Julius Drewe to designs by architect Edwin Lutyens, and is a Grade I listed building...
after Julius's death in 1931 after studying for seven years in central London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Cedric
Cedric Drewe
Sir Cedric Drewe, KCVO was a British Conservative Party politician. He was the son of Julius Drewe, the English businessman, retailer and entrepreneur....
, their youngest son, studied at the University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
between 1916 and 1920. He was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1924, and in 1953 was appointed into the Royal Victorian Order
Royal Victorian Order
The Royal Victorian Order is a dynastic order of knighthood and a house order of chivalry recognising distinguished personal service to the order's Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms, any members of her family, or any of her viceroys...
as a Knight Commander. He inherited the Broadhembury
Broadhembury
Broadhembury is a village and civil parish in the East Devon district of Devon, England, about 5 miles north-west of Honiton.According to the 2001 census the village had a population of 654...
properties after Julius's death.
After Julius's death, his wife Frances and her son Basil continued to live at the castle. Frances Drewe died in 1954 and Basil was then joined at Drogo by his son Anthony and his wife. In 1974, Anthony and his son, Dr Christopher Drewe, gave Castle Drogo and 600 acres (2.4 km²) of the surrounding land to the National Trust
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
. It was the first 20th-century property the charity acquired.