Clothing manufacturer and retailer. Montague Burton (1885 - 1952) was raised as Meshe David Osinsky,and emigrated from what is now Lithuania to England in 1900. He set up a business making and selling affordable clothes in the northern industrial towns. By 1914 he had 14 branches and by 1939 595, all in the UK. His company 'Montague Burton, The Tailor of Taste, Ltd' was the biggest bespoke tailoring business in the world, ever.
He provided, for the time, unusually good working conditions for his workforce but ruled the company in an autocratic style. Teetotal Montague like to have billiard halls above his shops and some are still there. Knighted in 1931. Married Sophia Marks and had children: Barbara, Stanley Howard and the twins Arnold and Raymond. We understand that all the sons entered the business. Lady Montague Burton, the daughter of a furniture dealer, died in 1957.
On Yorkshire Magazine says: "Burton marries Sophia Marks in Worksop in 1909 and sets up house in Sheffield where their first child, Barbara, is born. But they soon move to Leeds...".
More information at Faded London,Faded London - Richmond, Moving Here and Burton Menswear - about us.
One possible origin of the expression "the full Monty" is a reference to the WW2 demob suits, for which Burton's had a contract. The suits comprised: jacket, waistcoat and two pairs of trousers.
2024: We were contacted by Adrian Foulkes who has spotted two of the Burton memorial stones in Falmouth, 7-8 Market Street. The architecture of the building is very Burtons. The plaques are at each end of the building and one commemorates Arnold James Burton, 1937.
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