David Lewis

Photo by Jim North

David Lewis (1823 – 4 December 1885), was an English merchant and philanthropist of Jewish origin.

He was born in London. Settling in Liverpool in 1840, he had by 1856 accumulated enough capital to start his own business as a boys' clothier in Bold Street. Subsequently he opened a second establishment; and thereafter he gradually developed one of the largest retail businesses of the kind in England, erecting a department store in Liverpool, Lewis's. Similar stores were founded by him in Manchester, Sheffield, and Birmingham.


Extract from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lewis_(English_merchant)