Welcome to another edition of the History Islands. This week we look at the astonishing life of Florence Boot, the pioneering philanthropist who left an enduring legacy in Jersey. I’ve also recorded the story in audio form, for those who prefer to listen. ~Paul Darroch
Beauport Bay is sublime. Follow the steep path that wends down the hillside, where the green gorse opens onto a secluded beach. The golden sand, towering rock stack and shimmering blue bay form one of Jersey’s most iconic landscapes.
Just as captivating is the history of this beautiful bay. Long ago, a lady was asked by her husband exactly what would she like as a birthday or Christmas present, and she laughingly requested her very own bay. And in February 1923, the land above the beach, allowing exclusive access to its marvellous vistas, was purchased just for her.
That lady was born Florence Rowe, the daughter of a St Helier bookseller, but, in time, she would come to grow a vast retail empire, one that became a British household name. Her generosity continues to shape the Island we know today.
Florence was born on 29th July 1863 at Grove Place in St Helier, and her father was a bookseller and stationer on Queen Street. Her earliest recollections were “of toddling around the counters at my father’s side”. She developed a burning conviction that that “life in a shop could and ought to be a high calling”.
This belief would serve her well when she met the man who would change her life. Jesse Boot arrived in Jersey with his health broken. As a poor child, he had wandered barefoot in the fields to gather herbs for his family’s little chemist’s shop in Nottingham. He toiled long and hard to expand the business, yet the years of struggle had taken a heavy toll. Haunted by the spectre of his own father’s premature demise, Jesse was on the point of selling up. Then his sister suggested the ideal tonic: a holiday in sunny Jersey.
One Sunday, at chapel in St Helier, Jesse Boot met Florence Rowe, the bookseller’s daughter. The careworn businessman was smitten. The Jersey shop-girl was a dozen years younger, sociable, effervescent and imaginative. They fell in love and soon enough, on 30 August 1886, they were married.
Florence changed everything. Her enthusiasm and creative flair helped turn Boots into a phenomenon. She introduced the idea of a toiletries department, and modelled new stores in lavish medieval and Tudor styles. Her own background in the book trade inspired the innovative Boots Lending Library, which would eventually lend 35 million books a year.
Florence was a pioneer – a former shop-girl who now presided over a retail empire. She cared deeply for her female staff and encouraged them to strive for managerial roles in the business. After the Great War, Jesse finally sold the business for two and a quarter million pounds, a stupendous fortune in that distant age. He built FB (Florence Boot) Cottages to provide decent homes for Islanders at a time of great need, and in 1928 presented FB Fields to the Island as a sporting facility. That same year, the couple were ennobled as the 1st Baron and Lady Trent, and retired behind the gates of Villa Millbrook, their mock-baronial fortress in St Lawrence.
Sadly, Jesse’s health was weakening fast and he passed away in the summer of 1931. Yet Florence’s work was just beginning. She summoned the astonishing talents of René Lalique to Jersey, where he utterly transformed the tired old church of St Matthew’s at Millbrook. His exquisite altar and angels, illuminated by the white fire of electricity, are widely acclaimed as a modern masterpiece. Florence also gifted the extensive gardens of her own house to the Island “for the present and future generations… as a resting place for older people and a recreation place for the young ones”. The gardens were christened Coronation Park.
There was one last gift to come. Florence Boot adored her pristine sanctuary at Beauport, but always wished that her beloved bay should be enjoyed by all. So, just two years before her death, her son John donated the Beauport headland to the people of Jersey. Her precious birthday gift has become ours.
Thank you for reading. If you have enjoyed this, please share with your friends.
(c) Paul Darroch 2021
