WHITELEY, WILLIAM (1831-1907), English "Universal Provider," was born at Agbrigg, near Wakefield, Yorkshire, on Sept. 29, 1831, the son of a corn-factor. In 1851 he made his first visit to London to see the Great Exhibition, and in 1852 he ob tained a situation in a draper's establishment in the city. In 1863 he himself opened a small shop for the sale of fancy drapery in Westbourne Grove, Bayswater, London. He made a consistent practice of marking all goods in plain figures and of "dressing" his shop-window attractively, both unusual features in the retail trading of the time, and to this, coupled with the fact that he was satisfied with small profits, he largely attributed a success in which his own genius for organization and energy played a con spicuous part. In 1866 Whiteley added general drapery to his other business, opening by degrees shop after shop and depart ment after department, till he was finally enabled to call himself the "Universal Provider," and boast that there was nothing which his stores could not supply. "Whiteley's" was, in fact, the first
great instance of a large general goods store in London, held under one man's control. In 1899 the business, of which the profits then averaged over f I oo,000 per annum, was turned into a limited liability company, Whiteley retaining the bulk of the shares. On Jan. 23, 1907, he was shot dead, after an interview in his private office, by Horace George Rayner, who claimed (but, as was proved, wrongly) to be his illegitimate son and who had been refused pecuniary assistance. Rayner was convicted of mur der, but the death-sentence was commuted to penal servitude.