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December 7, 2015

Henry Poole & Co. Archives Fascinating Stories

The archives of Henry Poole & Co, 15 Savile Row, London,  tailors to the rich and famous since 1806, show some very interesting bills from well-known personalities.

Winston Churchill for example apparently left the company owing them  £197. According to the website

"His last order had been minor – repairing a Trinity House uniform, April 1937, five guineas; renovating a yachting cap, May 1937, seventeen shillings and sixpence, and preserving a minister’s uniform, five shillings. But his outstanding bill amounted to nearly £197, and a clerk in the company counting house wrote to him so frequently about the arrears that (like the Prince of Wales before him) he took umbrage and quit; but unlike the prince, he did not return’."

There are other fascinating personalities listed in their Ledger Account books including Charles Darwin

Here is a list of the clients you can read about on the Henry Poole website:
Individuals

  •     Louisa, Duchess of Manchester
  •     Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia
  •     Sir Henry ‘Chips’ Channon
  •     Jean Cocteau
  •     Prince Felix Youssoupoff
  •     Comte Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
  •     6th Earl of Harewood
  •     Edward Fox OBE
  •     Grand Duke Frederick I of Baden
  •     6th Earl of Chesterfield
  •     HH Prince Aga Khan III
  •     General de Gaulle
  •     HIM Emperor Pedro II of Brazil
  •     William Collins Whitney
  •     HIH Prince Takamatsu of Japan
  •     5th Earl of Lonsdale
  •     HH Prince Francis, Duke of Teck
  •     HH Prince Victor Duleep Singh
  •     Prince Otto von Bismarck
  •     Sir George Sitwell
  •     HM Queen Marie of Romania
  •     Bram Stoker
  •     HIH Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich
  •     Cornelius Vanderbilt II
  •     5th Marquess of Waterford
  •     HM King Alfonso XIII of Spain
  •     Sir Francis Knollys
  •     Sir Ernest Cassel
  •     HM King Ferdinand I of Romania
  •     HH The Maharaja of Baroda
  •     Calouste Gulbenkian
  •     Sir Henry Irving
  •     5th Marquess of Lansdowne
  •     Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida of Japan
  •     5th Earl Spencer
  •     HRH Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein
  •     1st Earl of Dudley
  •     HIH Emperor Akihito of Japan
  •     HH The Raja of Kapurthala
  •     J. P. Morgan
  •     HIH Prince Louis Napoleon, Prince Imperial of the French
  •     Prince George of Greece and Denmark
  •     Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton
  •     Sir Winston Churchill
  •     Serge Diaghilev
  •     The Duchess of Sutherland
  •     The Maharaja of Cooch Behar
  •     9th Duke of Marlborough
  •     Ismail Pasha, Khedive of Egypt
  •     Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild
  •     HRH Prince Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
  •     HM Queen Maria Sophia of the Two Sicilies
  •     9th Marquess of Queensberry
  •     HIM Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia
  •     Baron Meyer Amschel de Rothschild
  •     HIH Prince Frederick Wilhelm of Prussia
  •     Wilkie Collins
  •     HM King Leopold II of the Belgians
  •     Rt Hon Benjamin Disraeli
  •     Madame Adelina Patti
  •     3rd Viscount Astor
  •     Colonel W. F. Cody
  •     Sir Joseph Joel Duveen
  •     HM King Christian IX of Denmark
  •     General Right Hon Sir Dighton Probyn
  •     12th Duke of Bedford
  •     Maharaja Hanwant Singh of Jodhpur
  •     HIM Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia
  •     7th Earl of Chesterfield
  •     Robert Pinkerton
  •     9th Duke of Manchester
  •     Motilal Nehru
  •     Miss Catherine Walters
  •     The Hon Anthony Asquith
  •     Jiro Shirasu
  •     Madame Tussauds
  •     HM Queen Alexandra
  •     William Henry Vanderbilt III
  •     HM King George I of the Hellenes
  •     HIH Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico
  •     HM King Edward VII
  •     Adeline, Countess of Cardigan
  •     Crown Prince Hirohito of Japan
  •     5th Earl of Rosebery
  •     William Randolph Hearst
  •     Lillie Langtry
  •     5th Earl of Carnarvon
  •     HIM Emperor Napoleon III
  •     Lord Arthur Somerset
  •     Charles Dickens
  •     1st Marquess of Anglesey

Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Savile_Row-_Tailoring_at_Henry_Poole_and_Co.,_London,_England,_UK,_1944_D21867.jpg

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