George Charles Gotelee (1874-1957)

George Charles Gotelee (1874-1957)

During the Edwardian period George Charles Gotelee (1874-1957), developed a glass house nursery in the village of East Preston, on the south coast of England in West Sussex. When he arrived in the area he was in his twenties and very wealthy.  He was the son of a well to do draper who had made a fortune in unusual circumstances.

George's father had started his working life at the age of sixteen in a drapery shop in Shoreditch High Street in 1855. The owner of the shop, Jeremiah Rotherham, was childless, having lost his wife in a cholera epidemic in the East End of London in 1849. As the business expanded he needed help and picked out four of his trusted employees. One of these was Gotelee who by this time had become a buyer. The other three were Frederick Snowden, Robert Dummett and William Ellis. They had all started on the “shop floor” and had experience in different sides of the business. The store by this time had expanded, serving both retail and wholesale, employing an estimated 500 people.

Rotherham died in 1878 at the age of 72, and realising that he needed to ensure the continuity of his business, had made Snowden, Gotelee, Dummett and Ellis his partners. In his will he left his one fifth share to his niece and nephew with instructions for them to either join the business, or sell their share to the partners. It appears that they took the latter option. The value of Rotherham’s estate when he died was £350,000. Today that would be roughly £40million.

The four partners continued to expand the business, buying up the leases of their shops in Shoreditch High Street and the adjoining buildings. What they developed would today be referred to as a departmental store, but back then it was called a warehouse and they were “warehousemen”.

In 1898 the four partners sold the store via a stock market flotation for £500,000 (about £62million today), but remained on as directors. When Gotelee died in 1918 his probate was valued at just over £117,000, probably worth over £6million today. One of Gotelee’s sons did follow his father into the Jeremiah Rotherham & Co. business, he was the middle son, Sydney Treble Gotelee who became a director. He was 80 years old when he retired.

By 1958 the store was struggling; foreign imports, and the slow demise of the British textile industry were partly to blame, but the management also needed outside help. Funding was required and for the first time an eternal director was appointed to the board. He was Nadji Khazam, who was a money man who knew the textile industry. He formed a partnership with Isaac Reuben Yentob and various businesses they operated were merged. Jeremiah otherham was one of the casualties and eventually ceased trading. Khazam’s sister, Flora, married Isaac Yentob. Their son is Alan Yentob the TV presenter. The family businesses were streamlined and what is left has today has become Dewhurst Dent Limited, with member of both families still on the board.

Robert Dummett, who had been one of Gotelee’s partners, had been little more than a porter in the despatch department when he started at Jeremiah Rotherham. When he died in 1908 he left the equivalent of £8million. One of his sons was Sir Robert Ernest Dummett, chief magistrate, and one of his grandchildren was philosopher Sir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett.