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A Sad Day for Glasswells
Leslie Glasswells, the co-founder of Glasswells sadly passed away on Saturday 26th November, aged 88.
Born on October 13th 1923, son of Jerry and Ethel, brother to Peggy, he leaves a wife, Heather and children Susan, Judy and Paul and seven grandchildren.
Leslie lived his formative years in London, Ilford to be exact, commenced work at 15 window cleaning and also working in commercial shipping. The family moved back to Bury St Edmunds during the war in which Leslie served his country with the RAF in Canada.
Leslie’s father, Jerry worked with local Auctioneer’s undertaking country house clearances and later with Leslie set up a shop in Brentgovel Street. In the early days Glasswells sold second hand and utility furniture, moving on to new furniture as they needed more supplies. Stock was important and a series of small warehouses held a variety of items for quick delivery.
Shops were opened in many neighbouring towns and Town Hall exhibitions as well. Glasswells really thrived and grew at quite a pace. Leslie was buyer of all the stock and quite a risk taker; after all, if the stock was not sold there was nowhere to put it! He ran 100 of these travelling shows over several years.
Leslie continued to invest in the family business, opening a series of stores and trading from three larger shops in Bury town centre. Together with Vic Brega, he conceived the KingsburyWarehouse chain of furniture stores that became fantastically successful. This was the real entrepreneur’s stroke of genius and provided the financial security to the family firm to continue to grow beyond the sale of Kingsbury in 1976. This solid foundation enabled the purchase of a large out of town Bury St Edmunds site in 1992 and, after two extensions, the creation of the largest home furnishings store in the East of England. The success of the store was followed by a second in Ipswich and Leslie, as Chairman, continued to guide the direction and success of the business he created, which now employs over 260 staff and incorporates successful Removals, storage, restaurant and contracts businesses.
His private life was filled with sporting passions for tennis and golf and a great love of his wife, Heather, of 59 years, his three children and seven grandchildren. Leslie was active in both Round Table and Rotary charity fundraising. He served in his business life on the board of the National Association of Retail Furnishers and also the Associated Independent Stores and locally was captain of both the Risbygate Tennis and Bury Golf Club and was Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce.
Leslie enjoyed a full, active and fruitful life and will be sadly missed by all those that knew him.
