History

George Whitehead born in Hawarden, Cheshire, 1914 the son of an engineer and one of five children. His father, Joseph, moved his automobile service four years later to Sunderland, Co. Durham having just built the first motorised bicycle in North Wales. At the age of fourteen he joined the family business as one of his older brothers, Campbell, had left to join the merchant navy. Then, two years on he realised he was not mechanically minded and took up as a trainee chemist for a local pharmacy which involved evening studies at a college. After a further four years and with great reluctance, he left to join Wilson Robinson Menswear as an apprentice, costing his parents £50 for the privilege. The deciding factor for leaving the chemist was that in those days any stray animal had to be put down by the local chemist which he found distressing.

In 1939 he joined the army and a year later married Jean Anderson before serving abroad in Italy. After the war he re-joined his former employers but in 1947 after his son Alistair was born, he was offered a position at Moss Bros., Covent Garden and moved to West Wickham, Kent. In 1951 he went to work locally for Bryants before buying his first store in Ewell, Surrey in 1954. Later he opened his second store in Cobham on the new Oakdene Parade development but in 1961 he closed his first store when the lease expired, to concentrate on building a reputable high class men's wear retail based on quality and service before semi-retiring in 1985 leaving his son Alistair and his wife Lynda to carry on with the business.

George Whitehead
1914 - 1988