established worsted spinning business in West Bond Street. He made Thomas a partner in 1852 and on his uncle's death in the same year, Thomas assumed control aged 24 years.

Fielding Johnson appears to have been a talented but careful businessman who recognised that his best hopes for sustainable success lay in developing an effective business model in one factory and then duplicating it in others. It appears to have worked (during his own lifetime, at least). Throughout the 1914-18 war the Fielding & Johnson