|
Harry Gordon Selfridge, Sr. (11 January 1858 – 8 May 1947)〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/533543/Harry-Gordon-Selfridge )〕 was a United States-born British retail magnate who founded the London-based department store Selfridges. His 30-year leadership of Selfridges led to his becoming one of the most respected and wealthy retail magnates in the United Kingdom. Born in Ripon, Wisconsin, Selfridge delivered newspapers and left school at 14 when he found work at a bank in Jackson, Michigan. After another series of jobs, Selfridge found a position at Marshall Field's in Chicago, where he stayed for the next 25 years. In 1890 he married Rose Buckingham of the prominent Chicago Buckingham family. In 1906, following a trip to London, Selfridge invested £400,000 in his own department store in what was then the unfashionable western end of Oxford Street. The new store opened to the public on 15 March 1909 and Selfridge remained chairman until he retired in 1941. In later life, Selfridge lost most of his fortune. He died 8 May 1947, in Putney, London, aged 89 and was buried in St Mark's Churchyard at Highcliffe, Dorset next to his wife and mother.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=13731901 )〕 ==Early life== Selfridge was born in Ripon, Wisconsin,〔(The Yankee Who Taught Britishers That 'the Customer Is Always Right' ), Milwaukee Journal, 7 September 1932,〕 on 11 January 1858, one of three boys. Within months of his birth the family moved to Jackson, Michigan, as his father had acquired the town's general store. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, his father Robert Oliver Selfridge joined the Union Army. Rising to the rank of major, although he had been honorably discharged, he did not return home after the war ended and abandoned his children.〔('Shopping, Seduction and Mr Selfridge' by Lindy Woodhead, on BBC Radio 4 ),〕 This left his wife Lois to bring up three young boys. Selfridge’s two brothers died at a very young age shortly after the war ended, so Harry became his mother’s only child. She found work as a schoolteacher and struggled financially to support both of them. She supplemented her low income by painting greeting cards, and eventually became headmistress of Jackson High School. Selfridge and his mother enjoyed each other’s company and they were good friends; they lived together all their lives.〔(Online reference ) Woodhead, Lindy 2010 "Shopping Seduction and Mr Selfridge", pp. 13–14.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Harry Gordon Selfridge」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|