Sir John Moores CBEThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(25 January 1896 – 25 September 1993) was a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
businessman and philanthropist most famous for the founding of the now defunct
LittlewoodsLittlewoods is the name of a former retail and gambling company founded in Liverpool, Merseyside, England by John Moores in 1923.It started as a shopping catalogue company, processing orders by post in the early 1970s. In 1981, it expanded to a call centre, processing orders via telephone. At its...
retail company that was located in
LiverpoolLiverpool 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...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Early years
John Moores was born into a working-class family in
EcclesEccles is a town in the City of Salford, a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in North West England, west of Salford and west of Manchester city centre...
, near Salford,
LancashireLancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
on 25 January 1896. He was one of eight children and the eldest of four sons. He left Elementary school in 1910, at the age of 14, and became a messenger boy at the Manchester Post Office but was soon accepted in a course at the Post Office School of Telegraphy. This enabled him, in 1912 to join the Commercial Cable Company as a junior operator. He was in the Navy in World War one, from 1917 onwards, as a wireless operator.
Pre Littlewoods Days
Moores' father, also called John, was a bricklayer, but he developed a drink problem and died in January 1919 at the age of 47 of
TuberculosisTuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
. John Moores jnr was demobilised from the Navy two months later.
He carried on working for the Commercial cable company. In 1920 he was posted to Liverpool where he stayed for a few months, but later that year, Moores was posted to
WatervilleWaterville, historically known as Carrean , is a village in County Kerry, Ireland, on the Iveragh peninsula. The town is sited on a narrow isthmus, with Lough Currane on the east side of the town, and Ballinskelligs Bay on the west, and the Currane River connecting the two.The town's name in Irish...
in
County KerryKerry means the "people of Ciar" which was the name of the pre-Gaelic tribe who lived in part of the present county. The legendary founder of the tribe was Ciar, son of Fergus mac Róich. In Old Irish "Ciar" meant black or dark brown, and the word continues in use in modern Irish as an adjective...
,
IrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. He noticed there was no
public libraryA public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...
around for miles so he set up a store that sold books and stationery. He bulk imported books and called it the Waterville supply company. He also sold golf balls as there was no sports shop and a golf course. However, in 1922, Moores was back in England as the cable company stationed him at
LiverpoolLiverpool 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...
, where he would live for the rest of his life.
Littlewoods Business Empire
John, Colin Askham and Bill Hughes were friends who had worked together as Post Office messenger boys in
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
. It was whilst looking for a new money-making idea that Moores came across John Jervis Barnard, a
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
man who had latched onto the public's growing passion for two things: football and betting. Moores had always been an avid football fan from when he was very young. He played amateur football himself until retiring at the age of 40. Sports of all kinds had always interested him.
Barnard had devised a 'football pool', where punters would bet on the outcome of football matches. The payouts to winners came from the 'pool' of money that was bet, less 10 per cent to cover "management costs". It had not been particularly successful. Clearly, Barnard was struggling to make a profit. Moores got hold of a Barnard pools coupon, and the three Manchester friends decided they could – and would – do it better.
They could not let their employers, the Commercial Cable Company, know what they were doing, or they would be fired. No outside employment was allowed. That ruled out calling it the John Moores Football Pool, or anything like it. Moores recalled years later: "Calling it the John Smith's football pool sounded a bit dodgy". The solution to that particular problem came from Colin Askham. He had been orphaned as a baby and been brought up by an aunt whose surname was Askham, but he had been born Colin Henry Littlewood. And so, in 1923, the Littlewood Football Pool – as it was called originally – was started.
Each of the three partners invested £50 of their own money into the venture, and with the help of a small, discreet and cheap printer they got to work. In 1923, £50 was a huge sum to invest in what – based on Barnard's experience – was a precarious venture, and as Moores himself remembered: "As I signed my own cheque at the bank, my hands were damp. It seemed such a lot of money to be risking". A small office in Church Street, Liverpool, was rented and the first 4,000 coupons were distributed outside Manchester United's Old Trafford ground before one Saturday match that winter. Moores handed the coupons out himself, helped by some young boys eager to earn a few pennies.
It was not an instant success. Only 35 coupons came back. Bets totalled £4 7s 6d, and the 10 per cent deducted did not even cover the three men’s expenses. They needed to take the idea to another level, and quickly. So they decided to print 10,000 coupons, and took them to Hull, where they were handed out before a big game. This time, only one coupon was returned. Their venture was about to collapse almost as soon as it had begun. In the canteen of the Commercial Cable Company, the three partners had a hushed conversation. It was a crisis meeting. They had kept pumping money into the fledgling business, but midway through the 1924-25 football season it was still losing money. The three young men were each £200 lighter in the pocket, with no prospect of things improving. Bill Hughes suggested they cut their losses and forget the whole thing. Colin Askham agreed. They could see why John Jervis Barnard's idea of a football pool had failed in Birmingham. They expected Moores to concur, but instead he said: "I'll pay each of you the £200 you've invested, if you'll sell me your shares". Moores admitted that he considered giving up on the business himself, but was encouraged by his wife, who told him "I would rather be married to a man who is haunted by failure rather than one haunted by regret". Moores kept faith and he paid Askham and Hughes £200 each. In 1928, Moores' younger brother Cecil devised a security system to prevent cheating. Eventually the pools took off, becoming one of the best-known names in Britain.
In January 1932, Moores, by now a millionaire, was able to disengage himself sufficiently from the pools to start up Littlewoods Mail Order Store. This was followed on 6 July 1937 by the opening of the first
Littlewoods department store in
BlackpoolBlackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
. By the time World War II started there were 25 Littlewoods stores across the UK and over 50 by 1952.
Everton Football Club
In 1960, Moores gave up his chairmanship of the Pools business, and handed over the reins to his brother, Cecil Moores, (10 August 1902 - 29 July 1989), so he could become a director of
Everton Football ClubEverton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...
. In June he became the chairman and in April 1961 he famously sacked
Johnny CareyJohn Joseph "Johnny" Carey , also known as Jackie Carey, was an Irish footballer and manager. As a player Carey spent most of his career at Manchester United, where he was team captain from 1946 until he retired as a player in 1953...
in the back of a London
TaxiA taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice...
and appointed
Harry CatterickHarry Catterick was an English football player and manager. As a player Catterick played for Everton and Crewe Alexandra, in a career that was interrupted by World War II, but he is most notable as a manager...
as Everton manager in his place. He would remain as Everton chairman first of all up to July 1965, resigning due to the poor health of his wife, who died two months later. In 1968, Moores regained the chairmanship. He was chairman until August 1973 when he resigned. In 1975 he brought future chairman
Philip CarterSir Philip David Carter CBE is a Scottish-born football director, life president of Everton Football Club and a former director of Littlewoods....
to the Everton board, but Moores resigned from the Everton board of directors altogether in April 1977.
Baseball
John Moores was a keen baseball fan and created a league for Liverpool based teams in 1933. He later enticed Everton players such as
Dixie DeanWilliam Ralph Dean , better known as Dixie Dean, was an English football player. Dean originally started his career with Birkenhead based Tranmere Rovers before moving on to Everton, the club he had supported as a child, where he became one of the most prolific goal-scorers in English football...
to the game. In 1938 he donated the John Moores trophy to Great Britain national team for beating the United States Olympic team four games to one in a five-game series. The Great Britain team consisted largely of Canadians from the Yorkshire-Lancashire league.
For his efforts, he was inducted into the
British Baseball Hall of FameThe British Baseball Hall of Fame is endorsed by the British Baseball Federation. Its purpose is to honour the persons who have excelled in playing, managing, and serving the sport of baseball in Great Britain....
in October 2009.
Knighthood
In 1970 Moores was made a
FreemanFreedom of the City is an honour bestowed by some municipalities in Australia, Canada, Ireland, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, Gibraltar and Rhodesia to esteemed members of its community and to organisations to be honoured, often for service to the community;...
of the city of Liverpool. In 1972 he was made a
CBECBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
, in 1978 he was awarded the first Gold Medal for achievement, and in June 1980 he was
knightA knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
ed.
Later years
Moores retired as chairman in October 1977 of Littlewoods and was succeeded by his son
PeterSir Peter Moores CBE DL is a British businessman, art collector and philanthropist, a former chairman of the Liverpool-based Littlewoods football pools and retailing business in the United Kingdom....
. However, as profits fell from 49 million to 11 million, (Moores remained on the board) he resumed the chairmanship in November 1980. He gave up this role again in May 1982 and was made life president of the organisation.
Moores remained involved until the end of 1986. His family carried on running Littlewoods but John Clement succeeded Moores as chairman. Moores had two operations straight after each other, on his
achillesIn Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Plato named Achilles the handsomest of the heroes assembled against Troy....
tendonA tendon is a tough band of fibrous connective tissue that usually connects muscle to bone and is capable of withstanding tension. Tendons are similar to ligaments and fasciae as they are all made of collagen except that ligaments join one bone to another bone, and fasciae connect muscles to other...
and then for an enlarged
prostateThe prostate is a compound tubuloalveolar exocrine gland of the male reproductive system in most mammals....
during the summer of 1986, but he never was quite the same again. At the 1987
League CupIn association football, a League Cup or Secondary Cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament to be called "League Cup" was held in Scotland in 1946/47 and was entitled the Scottish...
final, sponsored by Littlewoods, Moores was the guest of honour. In early 1988, by now mainly in a
wheelchairA wheelchair is a chair with wheels, designed to be a replacement for walking. The device comes in variations where it is propelled by motors or by the seated occupant turning the rear wheels by hand. Often there are handles behind the seat for someone else to do the pushing...
, he was still visiting Littlewoods stores across the UK, but he began to lose his speech shortly afterwards and gave that role up. Moores attended Everton football matches up to a few years before his death.
Death
On 25 September 1993, Sir John died at his home, "Fairways", at Shireburn Road,
FreshfieldFreshfield is an area of Formby, in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, situated at the northern end of the town. It has no local political distinction or representation and is included as part of the two council wards which make up Formby , nor is it separated in any physical...
,
FormbyFormby is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It has a population of approximately 25,000....
, where he had lived since 1930. He was cremated six days later at
SouthportSouthport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...
.
Two months after his death his estate was valued as being worth more than 10 million pounds. The Littlewoods businesses were sold to the
Barclay BrothersSir David Rowat Barclay and Sir Frederick Hugh Barclay are British businessmen. The identical twin brothers have very substantial business interests primarily in media, retail and property. The Sunday Times Rich List of 2007 estimated their wealth at £1.8 billion...
, nine years later, in October 2002.
Family
Moores married Ruby Knowles (13 October 1894 - 8 September 1965) in Liverpool on 19 September 1923. They had four children:
- Elizabeth, now Betty Suenson-Taylor, Lady Grantchester, or The Dowager Lady Grantchester (b. June 1925) who married on 12 April 1947 Kenneth Bent Suenson-Taylor, 2nd Baron Grantchester
Baron Grantchester, of Knightsbridge in the City of Westminster, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1953 for the banker and Liberal politician Alfred Suenson-Taylor. , the title is held by his grandson, the third Baron, who succeeded his father in 1995...
(1921–1995), and had issue including the present Lord Grantchester.
- John Moores, Junior (b. 22 November 1928),
- Peter Moores
Sir Peter Moores CBE DL is a British businessman, art collector and philanthropist, a former chairman of the Liverpool-based Littlewoods football pools and retailing business in the United Kingdom....
(b. 9 April 1932), and
- Janitha Moores (b. 4 July 1937).
Other interests
In 1992,
Liverpool Polytechnic took the name
Liverpool John Moores UniversityLiverpool John Moores University is a British 'modern' university located in the city of Liverpool, England. The university is named after John Moores and was previously called Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts and later Liverpool Polytechnic before gaining university status in 1992, thus...
in his honour upon being granted University status.
In the Sunday Times Rich List 2006 the Moores' family wealth was estimated at £1,160m.
The John Moores Painting Prize is co-ordinated by
National Museums LiverpoolNational Museums Liverpool, previously known as National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, comprises several museums and art galleries in and around Liverpool, England. All museums and galleries in this group have free admission...
. The first John Moores exhibition was held in 1957, six years after the
Walker Art GalleryThe Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England, outside of London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group, and is promoted as "the National Gallery of the North" because it is not a local or regional gallery but is part...
re-opened after World War II. It was intended as a one-off, but its success led to it becoming a biennial event. By the early sixties, the exhibition was regarded as the UK’s leading showcase for avant-garde painting. Winning works have included classic paintings by
Jack SmithJack Smith was a British realist and, later, abstract artist.- Life :Jack Smith was born in 1928 in Sheffield, Yorkshire....
('Creation and Crucifixion'),
William ScottWilliam Scott may refer to:* William Scott , MP for Kent * William Scott, 1st Baron Stowell , English judge and jurist* William Scott , American silent film actor...
,
Roger HiltonRoger Hilton CBE was a pioneer of abstract art in post-war Britain. He was born in 1911 in Northwood, London and studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London under Henry Tonks and also in Paris, where he developed links with painters on the Continent.In World War II he served in the Army, part...
('March 1963') and
David HockneyDavid Hockney, CH, RA, is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer, who is based in Bridlington, Yorkshire and Kensington, London....
('Peter getting out of Nick's Pool').
Sources
- Barbara Clegg, ‘Moores, Sir John (1896–1993)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 3 June 2006
External links