The working class woman who went on to build a high street empire In 1870 Queen Victoria decreed: ‘Let women be what God intended, a helpmate for man, but with totally different duties and vocations.’.
Florence, the third of four children, was born to bookseller William Rowe and his wife Margaret Agnes Campbell in 1863 and brought up in the airy and beautiful St Helier in Jersey, a stark contrast to the busy streets of Nottingham she’d go on to inhabit.
However, there was one woman determined to flout such societal norms: Lady Florence Boot.
Her earliest memories were of ‘toddling round the counters at my father’s side and learning from him that all labour was dignified..and that life in a shop could be and ought to be a high calling.’.
Jesse Boot, owner of his family’s herbalist shop Boots, had ventured to Jersey after a bout of ill health.
