Thomas Spencer was a founder of Marks & Spencer

Marks & Spencer

Marks and Spencer plc is a British retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London, with over 700 stores in the United Kingdom and over 300 stores spread across more than 40 countries. It specialises in the selling of clothing and luxury food products...

, a major British retailer. He was born in Skipton

Skipton

Skipton is a market town and civil parish within the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. It is located along the course of both the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the River Aire, on the south side of the Yorkshire Dales, northwest of Bradford and west of York...

, Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

 and married Agnes Spencer Whitfield at St Saviour, Cross Green, Leeds in 1892.

He was a cashier from the wholesale company I.J Dewhirst and in 1894 he joined Michael Marks

Michael Marks

Michael Marks, , was one of the two co-founders of the retail chain Marks & Spencer.-Biography:...

 to form Marks & Spencer. Spencer decided that the £300 required for a half-share in the business would be a good investment.

The running of the business was split between Spencer, who managed the office and warehouse, and Marks, who continued to run the market stalls. Spencer had developed some important contacts while working for Isaac Dewhirst and these allowed him to get the best prices for goods by dealing directly with the manufacturers. Together, Spencer and Marks were able to open stores in Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Sheffield, Bristol, Hull, Sunderland and Cardiff.

A new warehouse in Manchester was built in 1897. This store became the centre of a business empire that by then included thirty-six branches. New stores had been built in Bradford, Leicester, Northampton, Preston, and Swansea. London had a total of seven branches.

In 1903, Marks & Spencer became a limited company. Spencer's original £300 investment had grown to a value of £15,000 and he retired later that year.

Spencer's wife Agnes was born in the village of Marton

Marton, Middlesbrough

Marton — officially Marton-in-Cleveland — was a village in the North Riding of Yorkshire, which is now within the town boundaries of Middlesbrough, in the borough of Middlesbrough and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. Originally, the parish of Marton extended down to the River...

, now a part of Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough is a large town situated on the south bank of the River Tees in north east England, that sits within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire...

. The couple met and married in Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

. Agnes funded charitable work such as the Church of St Agnes in Easterside, Middlesbrough

Easterside

-Introduction:Easterside is a small housing estate towards the geographical centre of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England, with a population of around 3,200. It is bounded to the east by Marton Road A172 and to the south by Ladgate Lane B1380...

. She died in 1959 and is buried in the graveyard of St Cuthbert's Parish Church in Marton.

External links

• Marks and Spencer website