{{Short description|English Methodist and businessman (1842–1935)}} {{for|the English athlete|Michael Gutteridge (athlete)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Michael Gutteridge''' (1842–1935) was an English Methodist and businessman who founded a successful drapery business in Naples, and the Wesley House seminary in Cambridge, England.<ref name=wesley>{{cite web|title=Wesley House - History|url=https://www.wesley.cam.ac.uk/about/history/michael-gutteridge/|website=Wesley House|access-date=26 February 2019}}</ref><ref name="glass">{{cite journal |last1=Glass |first1=Paul |title=The Origins of Wesley House, Cambridge |journal=Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society |date=May 1993 |volume=49 |pages=44–54 |url=https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/whs/49-2.pdf |access-date=26 February 2019}}</ref> The Italian fashion brand Gutteridge still exists, using the strapline "''dal 1878''" ("since 1878") as part of its image.<ref name=gutteridge />
==Personal life== Gutteridge was born in Selby, Yorkshire. He married Ada Cooke (died 1921), daughter of Samuel Cooke, a carpet mill owner from Liversedge, Yorkshire. Their son Harold Cooke Gutteridge (1876–1953) was a notable jurist.<ref name=odnb>{{Cite ODNB|id=33616|title=Gutteridge, Harold Cooke}}</ref> Gutteridge died on 26 May 1935.<ref name=wesley />
==Business life== Gutteridge's first shop was in Piazza Dante, where he sold cotton and woollen textiles; his father-in-law was a major Yorkshire based textile manufacturer. When the store opened he made the financially difficult decision not to trade on Sundays as other local businesses did, and "the sensation that he caused by so doing seemed to earn him admiration, goodwill and success".<ref name=glass />
It has been stated by the Gutteridge company that Matilde Serao's 1901 novel ''The Ballerina'' has a shop assistant at Gutteridge's as the central character;<ref name="gutteridge">{{cite web|title=Storia|url=https://www.gutteridge.com/it/catalogo/chi-siamo#aboutus|publisher=Gutteridge|access-date=26 February 2019}}</ref> another source states that Gutteridge himself appears in the novel as "the Englishman" described as "''il justo''"{{sic}}, "the just man".<ref name=glass />
==Possible Scottish heritage== The website of the Gutteridge company {{as of|lc=yes|February 2019}} describes Gutteridge as Scottish (''fondato ... dallo scozzese Michael Gutteridge'') and asserts that his father-in-law was the principal textile producer in Scotland (''con il supporto del suocero allora principale produttore tessile in Scozia''),<ref name=gutteridge /> but other sources agree that he was born in Selby and that his father-in-law was Samuel Cooke of Liversedge, Yorkshire.<ref name=odnb /><ref name=wesley />
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{cite web | url=https://thephraser.com/2016/05/12/a-light-has-gone-out-in-naples-italy/ | title=A light has gone out in Naples, Italy| website=ThePhraser |date=12 May 2016}} ''Obituary of Michael Rae, grandson of Gutteridge's cousin of the same name who became the Gutteridge company's manager, with history of the company and images of historic advertisements''
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gutteridge, Michael}} Category:1842 births Category:1935 deaths Category:British businesspeople Category:Italian businesspeople
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