Stanley Carter

He joined the Partnership at Peter Jones in 1929 and worked in  variety of roles until he became joint Managing Director of John Lewis Oxford Street two years before the new shop opened in 1960 following its post war rebuilding. In 1967 the Chairman, Bernard Miller asked him to take over as MD of Waitrose.  At the time the food division consisted of 25 shops, some of them supermarkets, but others still small grocery shops.

His main priorities were to improve the standard of shop keeping, create a distinctive Waitrose brand and increase the number of branches which by the time he retired, had risen to 50. He was instrumental in organising the move from the warehouse at Greenford to the new site at Bracknell and understood the need for investing in the new science of computerisation.

In his limited spare time Stanley was also known for his amazing knowledge of fungi and was reknown as an expert in this area of natural history.