Joseph Sidney Mitty MBE (7 May 1919 – 30 September 2007) was a British salesman and the man who turned the first Oxfam gift shop into a national

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...

network of shops selling second hand clothing and other goods. This network put Oxfam on the high street map and has contributed substantially to Oxfam's income as well as presence in the public eye over the years. It was also an inspiration for many charities to follow Oxfam's lead. Mitty worked for Oxfam for 33 years, earned the nickname of "salesman of the angels". By 2007, there were over 700 Oxfam shops throughout the UK.

Early life

Joe Mitty was born on 7 May 1919, in

Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...

, north

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. His father, an employee at Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, died when he was twelve years old and he was brought up by his mother. He attended a local

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school. After leaving school, Mitty became a

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clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts record keeping as well as general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include Records managem ...

. He joined the British Territorial Army in 1938, before enlisting in the 7th Battalion the Royal Berkshire Regiment in March 1939. in 1942, Mitty was admitted to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, for officer training, following which he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the British Army's Hampshire Regiment and was sent to

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. On his way to the Far East, Mitty travelled through

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, where he was moved by the

extreme poverty Extreme poverty is the most severe type of poverty, defined by the United Nations (UN) as "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, ...

which he witnessed in the

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. In 1942, while still serving in the military, Mitty married Dorothy White. The couple had two sons and a daughter. Dorothy died in 1995. His daughter Gloria died in 1989. Mitty left the Army in 1946 and moved to Oxford with his wife. He purchased a quarter-acre plot of land at Cumnor for £75, and built a house, which he and his wife would live in for the next 60 years. He initially worked for the Ministry of Aircraft Production. However, in 1949 he noticed an employment advertisement in the

Oxford Mail ''Oxford Mail'' is a daily tabloid newspaper in Oxford, England, owned by Newsquest. It is published six days a week. It is a sister paper to the weekly tabloid ''The Oxford Times''. History The ''Oxford Mail'' was founded in 1928 by MP Fra ...

newspaper seeking an administrative assistant for the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, an organization which would later become known by its current name, Oxfam. Mitty decided to apply for this position.

Oxfam and the Oxfam Charity Shop

Joe Mitty was hired directly by Oxfam founder, Cecil Jackson-Cole, in 1947. Mitty was instructed to meet Jackson-Cole in the lobby of the Grosvenor Hotel, in Victoria with a handkerchief over his face. He was also told to address anyone who approached him with the question, "Are you Mr Jackson-Cole?" Mitty was hired at the hotel by Jackson-Cole and received a starting

salary A salary is a form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee, which may be specified in an employment contract. It is contrasted with piece wages, where each job, hour or other unit is paid separately, rather than on a periodic basis. ...

of a little over £8 per week. This made Mitty Oxfam's first paid employee.Oxford Committee for Famine Relief Council minutes, 1946–49, Oxfam Archive Mitty's initial role at Oxfam was to oversee the distribution of donated

clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, garments, dress, apparel, or attire) is any item worn on a human human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin s ...

to Europeans who had been left impoverished during World War II. However, Oxfam soon saw an untapped financial potential in selling the donated clothing rather than just sending the donations to

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. This would allow Oxfam "to become a shop that sold everything but bought nothing," to quote The Telegraph. Proceeds from the sales of the donated goods would be used to fund Oxfam's charitable goals. Mitty's motto for the first gift shop was "If you donate it, we can sell it." The shop took £500 during its first year of operation, but by 1953 its annual profits were £10,000. Mitty's success with the first Oxfam shop gave him the opportunity to oversee and open several more charity shops throughout Britain by the early 1960s. His growing success at Oxfam allowed him to recruit a number of celebrities including Harry Secombe who helped to draw attention to Oxfam's work. By 1971, Mitty's Oxfam charity shops were making over £1 million and had become the largest charity shop chain in the country. Joe Mitty officially retired from Oxfam in 1982, though he continued to work as an Oxfam

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

. In 2006, he appeared with

Victoria Beckham Victoria Caroline, Lady Beckham (; born 17 April 1974) is an English fashion designer, singer, and television personality. She rose to prominence in the 1990s as a member of the pop group the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Posh Spic ...

at an Oxfam charity shop in

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where she presented him with an award and he sold her a black dress for £19.99 as part of a campaign to draw attention to Oxfam's work. He also worked with the 20,000 volunteers who run Britain's over 700 Oxfam charity shops. Mitty was awarded an MBE in 2003 for his work with the Oxfam charity shops and service to Oxfam. In 2006, the then prime minister,

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

, presented Mitty with a lifetime achievement award at the TV-Daily Mirror Pride of Britain event. Blair declared to the audience that if Mitty had worked in the

private sector The private sector is the part of the economy which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The private sector employs most of the workfo ...

he would have been a multi- millionaire. Carol Vorderman called Mitty "the grandfather of British charity shops" at the same awards.

Death

Joe Mitty died on 30 September 2007 at the age of 88.

References

External links

Oxfam: Remembering JoeOxfam Charity ShopsBBC News: Oxfam shop founder dies aged 88

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

, 2 October 2007
Oxfam shop founder Mitty dies
Charities Aid Foundation, 2 October 2007
''The Daily Telegraph'', 3 October 2007Obituary, ''The Times'', 4 October 2007Obituary, ''The Independent'', 11 October 2007
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitty, Joe 1919 births 2007 deaths Military personnel from the London Borough of Islington People from Oxford Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Royal Berkshire Regiment soldiers Royal Hampshire Regiment officers British Army personnel of World War II British charity and campaign group workers English activists Members of the Order of the British Empire Oxfam people 20th-century English businesspeople People from Islington (district)