George Harold Winterbottom

George Harold Winterbottom (1861 – 15 November 1934) was an Edwardian business magnate, who dominated global bookcloth manufacture for bookbinding, making him "one of the wealthiest men of England". Bookcloth took over from more expensive materials like silk and leather as the dominant hardcover bookbinding material in the early 19th century, revolutionising the manufacture and distribution of books. Winterbottom seized the opportunity to effectively monopolise the production and supply of high quality bookcloth, which facilitated a country life for himself as a gentleman farmer and philanthropist.

Early life

Winterbottom was born in Bury in 1861, the youngest son of Archibald Winterbottom, a self-made entrepreneur from a Huddersfield wool milling family, and Helen (née Woolley), daughter of a Mancunian cotton manufacturer. There is some uncertainty where Winterbottom was educated, but at the age of seventeen, he was apprenticed to the family business (Archibald Winterbottom (Co.)) with his older brother William.

Business magnate

In 1879 Winterbottom began his apprenticeship in his father's cotton mill, Victoria Mills. According to contemporary accounts, it was clear from the outset that he was determined to learn everything possible about bookcloth production, which was to prove crucial in running the company when his father died five years later. Following two years of direct tutelage from his father, Winterbottom was brought formally into the family business with his brother William Dickson Winterbottom in 1881. When Archibald Winterbottom died in 1884, the brothers continued to run Archibald Winterbottom (Co.) as executors until probate was released in 1887, and Archibald Winterbottom and Sons (AW&S) was created. Winterbottom focused his attention on stabilising the bookcloth market and exploring new business, while his brother consolidated existing production, principally from Victoria Mills.