THE STORY OF "JAEGER" WEAR

Free Lance, Volume XV, Issue 818, 3 March 1916, Page 18

THE STORY OF "JAEGER" WEAR

Contrary to any opinion that may be formed to the contrary, the Jaeger woollen clothing enterprise is absolutely British, in capital, management, work-people, and raw materials. It has always been so. It was in the war of 1870 that Dr. Jaeger came to the conclusion that troops engaged in that great struggle had suffered through their underclothing and linings to their tunics being of cotton. He evolved his theory of the healthfulness of pure wool clothing in 1880, and in 1881 published the result of his investigations. The idea - and that only—was adopted by Mr. Lewis R. S. Tomalin (who became a leading and active member of the London Chamber of Commerce). He and two of his friends purchased all the Jaeger interests outright for the whole of the British Empire, and in 1883 an essentially British enterprise was launched. A little company was formed, with a capital of £2000 only, and a small office opened in Fore Street, London, the centre of the soft goods trade of the world. The idea was foreign in its origin, but its carrying out in the British Empire was done entirely hy British subjects bora and bred, as it is to-day. The Jaeger Companyhas never been anything else but British, and its goods are distributed from branches throughout the British Empire. Its staff numbers 700 in its warehouses and ia London and depots elsewhere. The attorney in New Zealand is Mr. A. A. Corrigan.. The Company supplied probably two-thirds of the officers who have gone to the front from the United Kingdom alone. It has big contracts for both the British Army and Navy. While companies that carried on trade with German capital have had their Royal Warrants withdrawn, the Jaeger Company retains its Royal Warrant, clearly demonstrating its All-British origin and. character. (Published by arrangement.) ■