James Marshall

James Waddell^{[lower-alpha 5]} Marshall (2 June 1845 – 10 March 1925) was born in Falkirk, Scotland, son of medical doctor William Marshall who died when he was young, and his mother Agnes Aitken Marshall, née Waddell, shortly after. He was educated at Falkirk, then apprenticed to P. & J(ohn) Gentleman, a Falkirk draper. He left for London, where he was employed by James Spence & Co., who had a shop in St. Paul's Churchyard. In 1866 he was recruited for the Adelaide drapery firm of J. A. "Johnny" Northmore (died 1891),^[2] possibly by William Murray of D. & W. Murray, who was in London from 1866.^[15] He arrived at Port Adelaide aboard the ship St Vincent in November 1867^[21] and commenced work at Northmore's King William Street shop. He struck up a friendship with William Taylor (died 1913),^[1] of Northmore's Hindley Street store,^[4] and together set up in business in December 1872 as Marshall & Taylor at 12 Hindley Street,^[3] and in June 1875 a second establishment, at 87 Rundle Street.

He was never involved in politics or civic affairs, but was an active supporter of many charitable and patriotic causes: He was a board member of the:

• YMCA, Adelaide (of which he was a founder and at one time president). He purchased W. R. Fletcher's library to donate to the Association.^[21]
• Adelaide Children's Hospital
• Queen's Home at Rose Park, and served for many years as treasurer
• Adelaide Benevolent and Strangers' Friend Society
• Royal School for the Blind, Adelaide
• Home for Incurables
• Zoological and Acclimatisation Society
• Adelaide City Mission

He was at different times a member of the Flinders Street Presbyterian Church and of the Kent Town Methodist Church. In his younger days he was an active participant in a variety of sports and later enthusiastically followed football, cricket, and tennis. He made around ten visits to England and several to America.

Marshall suffered from dyspepsia for 37 years, but did not let it interfere with his work or affect his bright and friendly demeanor. He was finally away from his office however for nine months, suffering from the illness that finally took his life.

Frederick Allen Lakeman

Frederick Allen Lakeman (c. 1855 – 1 May 1941), businessman and philanthropist, was born in Stoke Newington, London, and educated at Richmond, London, and afterwards at Winslow, Buckinghamshire. His father worked for a firm of wholesale milliners, which may account for Lakeman's first job being with Henry Smith, draper of Brixton Hill, followed by another drapery house at Clapham, and then the well-known firm of Hitchcox Williams of St Paul's Churchyard.^[24] He was brought out to South Australia by G. & R. Wills & Co., Ltd. in 1878, then in 1885 joined James Marshall & Co. as a partner and director of the company. He was elected chairman of directors following the death of James Marshall and retired from the board in September 1928 following the takeover by Myer Emporium.

He was known as a public benefactor in connection with:

• The Mission to Seamen at the Outer Harbor. He purchased a corrugated iron hut from the WWI army camp at Mitcham as a temporary meeting place for the organization, pending the erection of a permanent building, which he also funded (the Lakeman Institute was opened by the Governor in August 1929).^[25]

While on a trip to London he visited the parent organization and attended the opening of their new £54,000 hostel at Poplar, London. He also purchased three Russian bagatelle tables for the Outer Harbor Mission.^[24]

• In 1939 he made a gift of more than £3,000 to 64 long-serving employees of James Marshall and Co., with no regard to their position, in appreciation for their loyalty and long association with the company.^[26]
• He provided funds for the establishment of Travellers' Aid cottages in North Adelaide.^[26]
• He left £10,000 to St Peters Cathedral for a peal of bells. Nothing could be done during the War, but an order was placed with John Taylor & Co., bell founders of Loughborough, Leicestershire England for a peal of eight bells, including a two-ton tenor bell, 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter, on which was engraved an inscription in Latin translated as "Frederick Allen Lakeman gave me and my brothers for the praise of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost AD 1941". Regarded as the finest in Australia, they constituted the only true peal in Adelaide; those in the Adelaide Town Hall, St Augustine's, Unley and St Andrews, Walkerville being classed as carillons.^[27]

Lakeman never married and had no children. He had a home at 34 Brougham Place, North Adelaide, where he had several valuable pictures, one by Mary Elwell,^[28] being noteworthy. He died in a private hospital at North Adelaide and his remains were interred in the North Road Cemetery following a service at the Cathedral conducted by the Dean of Adelaide, Dean Jose.

Donald Reid

Reid (c. 1884–??) was the second son of John Wishart Reid (c. 1853 – 26 April 1938) and Edith Reid, née Gibbons (c. 1862 – 18 June 1922) married 1880, of Goolwa.

J. W. Reid of Orkney arrived in Adelaide on the Scottish Lassie January 1878 to work for his uncles John and William Wishart, who had a considerable business building wharves and bridges in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

He started around 1899 as an office boy in James Marshall & Co.'s furniture warehouse, leaving their employ in 1906 to manage the A.M.C. Stores in Kadina.^[29] Four years later he succeeded Roy Taylor as manager of Marshall & Co.'s furniture warehouse, and in 1920 he was appointed general manager. Five years later he had a seat on the board of directors, then (around 1928?) he was made managing director.^[30] He was appointed general manager of Myer's Adelaide in September 1928, then – left for Melbourne.

Reid married Florence Selwood of Kadina on 12 May 1910. They had a son Donald Gordon Wishart Reid in 1912.

Before moving to Melbourne they had a home 'Stronsay' at 107 Alexandra Terrace, Toorak.^[31] His property on Tasman Terrace, Port Lincoln, known as 'The Castle' was sold to builder Stanley Rosewarne of Kadina.^[32]