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Authority record
Person · 20 October 1917 – 8 January 2007
Kenneth Cranston was born in Liverpool and played cricket for Lancashire until 1950. He was selected to play for England in 1947 and 1948. He served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War and practised as a dentist until 1990.
Person · 24 Feb 1914 – 16 Mar 2005

Architect and town planner.
Studied architecture at the Regent Street Polytechnic 1931-1936. Best known for work in Sweden.
Contemporary of Gordon Cullen.

ODNB entry: https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/97588

Matthew Williamson
Person · 1971-Present
Matthew Williamson was born in Manchester in 1971. He later moved to London to study at Central Saint Martins, graduating in 1994. He founded his label in February 1997 and debuted his collection 'Electric Angels' at London Fashion Week the same year and was nominated for Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards in 1999 and 2000. Williamson opened his store at 28 Bruton Street in Mayfair in 2004; and between 2006 and 2009 was Creative Director at Italian Fashion House, Emilio Pucci. Since then, he has branched out into interior design, collaborating with a number of brands such as Obeetee, Pooky and John Lewis
Person · c.1912-2006
Frank Magatti lived as a child, and prior to his marriage, on Stamford Street near Waterloo, London. He attended the London Oratory School in West Brompton, and later became an electrical engineer. In 1937 he joined the Polytechnic Cycling Club, and was Club Captain by March 1939. He was also a member of the Saint Christophers Catholic Cycling Club, through which he met his wife Doris. They later lived in Camberwell, London, and had five children. In the late 1980s, Magatti was Honorary General Secretary for the Polytechnic Cycling Club. In 2002/03 Magatti and his wife moved to Oxfordshire.
Person · 1856-1944

Worked as a professional photographer on Regent Street.
Hired by Quintin Hogg to teach photography in 1882, and went on to become head of the School of Photography. Retired in 1918.

Farmer invented 'Farmer's Reducer' - a solution of ferricyanide and hypo, used in the reduction of density and to increase contrast in a negative.

In 1906/7 Farmer visited the Lumière Laboratories in Lyon to learn about their autochrome process. The Lumière Brothers requested that their London Agents work in conjunction with Farmer and the Polytechnic's School of Photography took the lead in the training of 'natural colour professional portraiture. In 1911, this resulted in a royal commission to create an autochrome of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught which was inserted into the pannelling of Fyvie Hall in 309 Regent Street.

Farmer introduced cinematography to the syllabus of the School of Photography in 1909.

Person · 11 Jan 1915-3 Oct 2013
Roy spent most of his life in the Wembley and Harrow area, before retiring to Milton Keynes. After attending the Polytechnic School 1926-1930, Roy trained as an architect and worked for the London County Council. During the Second World War his job was to survey bombed buildings and cellars that could be used to store water for dousing fires. He also drove ambulances with the St John Ambulance and was a member of the civil defence.
Person · 1892-1973

Full-time student at the School of Art for 4 years before continuing as an evening student. In October 1929, she was awarded the Robert Mitchell medal and went on to become a portrait painter, with work in the Parliamentary Art Collection and Museum of Fulham Palace.

She is believed to have painted two of the murals in Fyvie Hall. However, they are unsigned so unidentified.

Miu Miu menswear
Corporate body · 1998-2008
A subsidiary of Prada, Miu Miu is named after Miuccia Prada's family nickname. Primarily a women's wear label (first launched in 1992), Miu Miu menswear's first collection was for Spring Summer 1999. The label's last collection was Spring Summer 2008.
Burberry
Corporate body · 1856-Present

Burberry’s 1856–1999 Burberry 1999–present
Burberry began as a men’s outfitter on Westminster Street in Basingstoke, Hampshire, that was opened in 1856 by 21-year-old Thomas Burberry (1835–1926). While initially focusing on clothing for the local farming community, Burberry’s manufactured garments to appeal to the growing number of upper-middle-class men taking up country pursuits, including hunting and fishing. In 1879 Burberry’s developed the fabric gabardine, patenting it in 1888. This hard-wearing cloth was woven initially from worsted wool, or worsted wool mixed with cotton, and waterproofed before weaving using lanolin (a waxy substance from sheep that helps them to shed water from their wool). In 1891 Burberry’s opened a flagship store at 30 Haymarket, London. Subsequently, international stores opened in New York, Buenos Aires, Paris and Montevideo between 1900 and 1914. The association of Burberry’s with the military was established in 1902 when a new service uniform for officers designed by the company was approved by the War Office. In 1906, they began accepting orders for uniforms from the British Army and Royal Marines, and the Royal Flying Corps (later Royal Air Force) used Burberry’s as a clothing supplier during the First World War.

Burberry’s became the preferred outfitter of numerous explorers, including Roald Amundsen, the first man to reach the South Pole in 1911, and Sir Ernest Shackleton, who led an Antarctic crossing expedition in 1914. In 1910, Claude Grahame-White, the first Englishman to fly between London and Manchester in under twenty-four hours, wore Burberry. Mountaineer George Mallory donned Burberry’s during his ill-fated effort in 1924 to be the first man to summit Mount Everest. The company patented the forerunner of the trench coat – called a Tielocken coat – in 1912, which became popular among British Army officers during the First World War. In 1913 Burberry’s relocated to a new building at 18–21 Haymarket designed by architect Walter Cave, which contained the company’s flagship store and headquarters. In 1955 Burberry’s, the family-run business, was bought by Great Universal Stores (GUS), a mail-order company based in Manchester. In 1970 Burberry’s entered a licensing agreement with Mitsui to manufacture licensed products for the Japanese market with Sanyo Shokai. It renewed the deal in 2000 for another twenty years. They generated over US$1.15 billion in retail sales in Japan in 2000, the most of any non-Japanese clothing brand. At one point, 75 per cent of the brand’s sales came from Japanese consumers.

In 1997 Rose Marie Bravo was appointed as new CEO for Burberry’s. She oversaw a reversal of fortune for the company, repositioning Burberry’s as a high-end designer fashion brand. In 1998 designer Roberto Menichetti (b. 1966) was appointed creative director, and in 1999 the company name was changed from Burberry’s to Burberry and saw the launch of its Prorsum line. Menichetti was replaced in 2001 by Christopher Bailey (b. 1971), who was appointed creative director, becoming Chief Creative Officer in 2009 and CEO in 2014. At the British Fashion Awards in 1999, Burberry won the Classic Design award, and in 2001 they won the Contemporary Designer award, demonstrating how the brand had begun to reposition itself. In 2007 and 2008, Christopher Bailey for Burberry was voted Menswear Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards, and again in 2013, when Burberry was also named Brand of the Year. They opened a new flagship store on London’s New Bond Street in 2000, bringing the brand’s global footprint to fifty-five locations in nine countries.

In July 2002 Burberry was listed on the London Stock Exchange following an initial public offering. In June 2003, the brand began showing their menswear collections during Milan Menswear Week and continued to do so until June 2013, when they relocated their menswear shows to London as part of London Collections: Men. GUS divested its stake in Burberry in 2005, distributing the remaining shares to its shareholders. Rose Marie Bravo retired in 2006 and was succeeded by Angela Ahrendts, who increased sales to more than £2 billion between 2006 and 2014. Burberry relocated its headquarters to Horseferry Road, Westminster, in 2007. They entered a deal in 2010 to acquire the stores and other assets operated by its franchisees in China, purchasing the assets and inventory of fifty stores. Burberry Prorsum, Burberry London and Burberry Brit were discontinued in 2016, and all products were rebranded as Burberry. The company announced in October 2017 that Christopher Bailey would depart the company in March 2018. Ricardo Tisci (b. 1974) was appointed Chief Creative Officer on 1 March 2018 and debuted his first collection in September 2018. In September 2022, Burberry announced that after five years as Chief Creative Officer, Riccardo Tisci would be replaced in October 2022 by Daniel Lee (b. 1986), the former creative director of Bottega Veneta.

Sources: Burberryplc.com; Financial Times; Guardian Unlimited; International Herald Tribune; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; Retail Jeweller; The Daily Telegraph; The Sunday Times; The Times; WWD.