Emily Faulder, Co-founder of Universal Aunts
Emily Story Faulder (1883-1974), was the first child of Joseph Sewell Faulder and his wife Emily Story and was my Great Aunt.
Gertrude Maclean together with Emily Faulder set up Universal Aunts in 1921 as the original concierge service although very much focusing on looking after children – particularly those travelling alone.
Their website reports:
Having found a partner, Miss Emily Faulder, she [Gertrude Maclean] started her business in a little room behind a bootmaker’s in Chelsea. Their lease did not allow them to work in the afternoons, so they went, with their papers in a capacious knitting bag, to Harrods’ Ladies’ Rest Room where they received clients and applicants on a sofa in the corner. So began a business that by its 80th year had employed over three quarters of a million men and women, and undertaken over a million services. (more…)