Michael Gutteridge (1842–1935) was an English Methodist and businessman who founded a successful drapery business in
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
, and the
Wesley House
Wesley House was founded as a Methodist theological college (or seminary) in Jesus Lane, Cambridge, England. It opened in 1921 as a place for the education of Methodist ministers and today serves as a gateway to theological scholarship for ...
seminary in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...
, England.
The Italian fashion brand Gutteridge still exists, using the strapline "''dal 1878''" ("since 1878") as part of its image.
Personal life
Gutteridge was born in
Selby
Selby is a market town and civil parish in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England, south of York on the River Ouse, with a population at the 2011 census of 14,731.
The town was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until ...
, Yorkshire. He married Ada Cooke (died 1921), daughter of Samuel Cooke, a carpet mill owner from Liversedge, Yorkshire. Their son Harold Cooke Gutteridge (1876–1953) was a notable jurist.
Gutteridge died on 26 May 1935.
Business life
Gutteridge's first shop was in
Piazza Dante, where he sold cotton and woollen textiles; his father-in-law was a major Yorkshire based textile manufacturer. When the store opened he made the financially difficult decision not to trade on Sundays as other local businesses did, and "the sensation that he caused by so doing seemed to earn him admiration, goodwill and success".
It has been stated by the Gutteridge company that
Matilde Serao
200px, Matilde Serao, by "Rossi"
Matilde Serao (; gr, Ματθίλδη Σεράο; 7 March 1856 – 25 July 1927) was an Italian journalist and novelist. She was the first woman called to edit an Italian newspaper, Il ''Corriere di Roma'' and ...
's 1901 novel ''The Ballerina'' has a shop assistant at Gutteridge's as the central character;
another source states that Gutteridge himself appears in the novel as "the Englishman" described as "''il justo''", "the just man".
Possible Scottish heritage
The website of the Gutteridge company describes Gutteridge as Scottish (''fondato ... dallo scozzese Michael Gutteridge'') and asserts that his father-in-law was the principal textile producer in Scotland (''con il supporto del suocero allora principale produttore tessile in Scozia''),
but other sources agree that he was born in Selby and that his father-in-law was Samuel Cooke of Liversedge, Yorkshire.
Notes
External links
* ''Obituary of Michael Rae, grandson of Gutteridge's cousin of the same name who became the Gutteridge company's manager, with history of the company and images of historic advertisements''
1842 births
1935 deaths
British businesspeople
Italian businesspeople
{{Italy-business-bio-stub