The woman who went on to build a high street empire | News UK [Video]

In 1870 Queen Victoria decreed: ‘Let women be what God intended, a helpmate for man, but with totally different duties and vocations.’ 

However, there was one woman determined to flout such societal norms: Lady Florence Boot.

Such was her ambition, in 1913, the Bystander magazine wrote that she ‘was the most wonderful example of the modern business woman’

Born into a middle class family in Jersey, Florence went on to shape Britain’s high street in a monumental way. While running Boots with her husband, she oversaw the introduction of toiletries, perfume and gifts onto shelves and transformed the shopping experience for British women.

But how did a humble islander go on to become the head of a retail empire?

Florence, the third of four children, was born to bookseller William Rowe and his wife Margaret Agnes Campbell in 1863 and brought up in the airy and beautiful St Helier in Jersey, a stark contrast to the busy …