John Moores (British businessman)

Early years

John Moores was born into a working-class family in Barton-upon-Irwell, Lancashire on 25 January 1896. He was the second of eight children and the eldest of four sons born to John William Moores (17 September 1871 - 9 February 1919) and Louisa Moores (nee Fethney) (9 March 1873 - 13 December 1959). When he was 12 when he got his first job, helping with the milk round before school started. He left elementary school in 1910, at the age of 14, and became a messenger boy at the Manchester Post Office, but was sacked. Shortly afterwards however, he was soon accepted in a course at the Post Office School of Telegraphy. This enabled him, in 1912 to join the Commercial Cable Company as a junior operator. He was in the Navy during the First World War, from 1917 onwards, as a wireless operator.

Pre Littlewoods days

Moores' father, John William, was a bricklayer, then later became a site foreman. John Moores snr was a hard worker but developed a drink problem. He was off work in the last two years of his life with an industrial injury. During that time he also developed tuberculosis and died of the illness in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, at the age of 47. John Moores Jnr was demobilised from the Navy two months later. He carried on working for the Commercial Cable Company. In 1920 he was posted to Liverpool where he stayed for a few months, but later that year, Moores was posted to Waterville in County Kerry, Ireland. He complained about the food that was served at the Waterville Cable Company Station and so was elected to run the Mess Committee. He established the Waterville Supply Company to order food from a variety of suppliers instead of just one, so was able to reduce costs and raise the quality of meals. He noticed there was no public library around for miles so he set up a store that sold books and stationery. He bulk imported books. He also sold golf balls as there was no sports shop or golf course. Between his telegraphist salary and the profits he made from the Waterville Supply Company (helped by his status of Mess President which meant that he didn't have to pay for his own meals) he made £1,000 in 18 months.

However, in 1922, Moores was back in England as the cable company reposted him again to Liverpool, where he would remain for the rest of his life.

Littlewoods business empire

John, Colin Askham and Bill Hughes were friends who had worked together as Post Office messenger boys in Manchester. It was whilst looking for a new money-making idea that Moores met John Jervis Barnard, a Birmingham man who had latched onto the public's growing passion for two things: football and betting. Moores had always been an avid football fan from when he was very young. He used to go and watch Manchester United with his father and his younger brothers.

Barnard had devised a 'football pool', where punters would bet on the outcome of football matches. The payouts to winners came from the 'pool' of money that was bet, less 10 per cent to cover "management costs". It had not been particularly successful. Clearly, Barnard was struggling to make a profit. Moores obtained one of Barnard's pools coupon, and the three Manchester friends decided they could do it better.

They could not let their employers, the Commercial Cable Company, know what they were doing, or they would be sacked. No outside employment was allowed. That ruled out calling it, for example, John Moores Football Pool or the Colin Askham football pool. The solution to that particular problem came from Colin. He had been orphaned as a baby and been brought up by an aunt whose surname was Askham, but he had been born Colin Henry Littlewood. And so, in 1923, the Littlewood Football Pool – as it was called originally – was started.

Each of the three partners invested £50 of their own money into the venture, and with the help of a small, discreet and cheap printer they got to work. In 1923, £50 was a huge sum to invest in what – based on Barnard's experience – was a precarious venture, and as Moores himself remembered: "As I signed my own cheque at the bank, my hands were damp. It seemed such a lot of money to be risking".

A small office in Church Street, Liverpool, was rented and the first 4,000 coupons were distributed outside Manchester United's Old Trafford ground before one Saturday match that winter. Moores handed the coupons out himself, helped by some young boys eager to earn a few pennies.

It was not an instant success as just 35 coupons were returned. With bets totalling £4 7s 6d (£4.37½), the 10 per cent deducted did not cover the three men’s expenses. They decided to print 10,000 coupons, and took them to Hull, where they were handed out before a big game. This time, only one coupon was returned. Their venture was about to collapse almost as soon as it had begun. In the canteen of the Commercial Cable Company, the three partners held a crisis meeting. They had kept pumping money into the fledgling business, but midway through the 1924-25 football season it was still losing money. The three young men had alread invested £200, with no prospect of things improving. Bill Hughes suggested they cut their losses and forget the whole thing. Colin Askham agreed. They could see why John Jervis Barnard's idea of a football pool had failed in Birmingham. They expected Moores to concur, but instead he said: "I'll pay each of you the £200 you've invested, if you'll sell me your shares".

Moores admitted that he considered giving up on the business himself, but was encouraged by his wife, who told him "I would rather be married to a man who is haunted by failure rather than one haunted by regret". Moores kept faith and he paid Askham and Hughes £200 each. Moores was prosecuted under the Ready Money Betting Act. Following a court appearance, he was convicted. However, as his company never accepted cash, only postal orders that were cashed after the football results and the winning payout had been confirmed, his appeal was upheld. In 1928, Moores' younger brother Cecil devised a security system to prevent cheating. The breakthrough came when the owner of the coupon printing company Arthur Bottomes suggested that he took his exact expenses out (plus a bit extra) before calculating the winning payout. Eventually the pools took off, becoming one of the best-known names in Britain.

In January 1932, Moores, by now a millionaire, was able to disengage himself sufficiently from the pools to start up Littlewoods Mail Order Store. This was followed on 6 July 1937 by the opening of the first Littlewoods department store in Blackpool. By the time World War II started there were 25 Littlewoods stores across the UK and over 50 by 1952.

The war years

The company then turned to war work - warehouses were equipped and staff were retrained so that the company could make parachutes. From 1940 they also made barrage balloons and in 1941 dinghies and munitions were added to the manufacturing portfolio. 1942 saw aircraft parts and bridge pieces being manufactured and from 1943 the firm built storm-boats that could cross water and land on beaches. They also became experts at 'boxing' - making compact transportable kits containing dismantled vehicles that could be reassembled at their destination overseas. The boxing division also made Pacific Packs containing rations for soldiers in the Far East. The football pools continued during the war years however.

Post war

At the end of January 1947, Moores fell ill and contracted meningitis - he survived but it took him over one month to recover. He later said he felt it took most of that year for him to fully recover. The businesses continued to expand, and his two sons were given roles in the chain stores and at director level. The company branched out into manufacturing and testing of garments as a natural progression from the manufacturing work that had been carried out during World War II. In 1957 the company installed its first computer to help with stock control.

Everton Football Club

In 1960, Moores gave up his chairmanship of the Pools business, and handed over the reins to his brother, Cecil Moores, (10 August 1902 – 29 July 1989), so he could become a director of Everton Football Club. In June, he became the chairman. On 23 June it was revealed that during the 1959-1960 season he had lent Everton £56,000 interest free so they could buy players and on 14 April 1961 he famously sacked Johnny Carey in the back of a London Taxi and appointed Harry Catterick as Everton manager in his place. The event would become synonymous in football with the phrase "taxi for...", particularly for under fire football managers.

He would remain as Everton chairman first of all up to July 1965, resigning due to the poor health of his wife, who died of Cancer two months later. In August 1968, Moores regained the chairmanship and was chairman until August 1973 when he resigned for the second and final time. He then became vice-chairman. Moores retired from the Everton board altogether on 8 July 1977.

Baseball

John Moores was a keen baseball fan and created a league for Liverpool-based teams in 1933. He later enticed Everton players such as Dixie Dean to the game. In 1938 he donated the John Moores trophy to Great Britain national team for beating the United States Olympic team four games to one in a five-game series. The Great Britain team consisted largely of Canadians from the Yorkshire-Lancashire league.

For his efforts, he was posthumously inducted into the British Baseball Hall of Fame in October 2009.

Knighthood

In April 1970 Moores was made a Freeman of the city of Liverpool. In 1972, he was made a CBE, in 1978 he was awarded the first Gold Medal for achievement, and in June 1980 he was knighted.

Later years

Moores retired as chairman in October 1977 of Littlewoods and was succeeded by his son Peter. However, as profits fell from 49 million to 11 million, (Moores remained on the board) he resumed the chairmanship on 10 October 1980. He resigned, and retired for the second and final time on 25 March 1982. On 28 May 1982 he was made life president of the organisation and for the next four years would go to his office three times a week.

His family carried on running Littlewoods but John Clement succeeded Moores as chairman. Moores had two operations straight after each other, on his achilles tendon and then for an enlarged prostate during the spring of 1986, but never fully recovered nor regained his health. He remained involved at Littlewoods until later that year.

At the 1987 League Cup final, sponsored by Littlewoods, Moores was the guest of honour. In 1988, he attended his final ever AGM. That year he began to lose his speech and was unable to talk in his final years, which were spent in a wheelchair and mostly confined to his home.

Death

On 25 September 1993, Sir John Moores died at his home, "Fairways", at Shireburn Road, Freshfield, Formby, where he had lived since 1930. He was cremated six days later in Southport.

The Sunday Times Rich List 1989 estimated his estate to be worth £1.7 billion. The Littlewoods businesses were sold to the Barclay Brothers, nine years after Moores' death, in October 2002.

Family

Moores married Ruby Knowles (27 October 1894 – 8 September 1965) in Liverpool on 19 September 1923. They had four children:

1. Elizabeth, now Betty Suenson-Taylor, Lady Grantchester, or The Dowager Lady Grantchester (b. 8 June 1925) who married on 12 April 1947 Kenneth Bent Suenson-Taylor, 2nd Baron Grantchester (1921–1995), and had issue including the present Lord Grantchester.
2. John Moores, Junior, CBE (b. 22 November 1928 – d. 22 May 2012),
3. Peter Moores, CBE (b. 9 April 1932 - d. 23 March 2016) and
4. Janitha Moores later Stubbs (b. 4 July 1937).

Other interests

In 1992, Liverpool Polytechnic took the name Liverpool John Moores University in his honour upon being granted university status. A statue was later built which stands in the courtyard of the university's Avril Robarts Library.

In the Sunday Times Rich List 2006 the Moores' family wealth was estimated at £1,160m.

The John Moores Painting Prize is co-ordinated by National Museums Liverpool. The first John Moores exhibition was held in 1957, six years after the Walker Art Gallery re-opened after World War II. It was intended as a one-off, but its success led to it becoming a biennial event. By the early 1960s, the exhibition was regarded as the UK’s leading showcase for avant-garde painting. Winning works have included classic paintings by Jack Smith ('Creation and Crucifixion'), William Scott, Roger Hilton ('March 1963') and David Hockney ('Peter getting out of Nick's Pool').

Political Activities

Between 1933 and 1940 Moores was a Conservative councilor for the Sefton parish for Sefton Rural District and West Lancashire Rural District. In 1933 he stood as a National Government candidate for Clay Cross and at the 1935 General Election in Nuneaton but failed to be elected both times. Despite his views, he was good friends with the Labour MP Bessie Braddock, held her in high regard and the two worked together on several projects involving Liverpool.