Frederick Charlwood Frye

Who is Frederick Charlwood Frye?

Frederick Charlwood Frye was a British grocer and Liberal Party politician.

In 1870 he formed the business partnership of "Leverett, Frye and Scholding'", opening the first of a chain of grocery stores in Greenwich. Frye took sole control of the company in 1880. In 1892 the business was renamed "Leverett & Frye", and by 1894, when it became a limited company, it had 50 stores in England and Ireland, concentrating on opening shops in newly developed suburbs. Frye became president of the Metropolitan Grocers Association and in 1891 helped found the Federation of Grocer's Associations of the United Kingdom.

Frye was a progressive employer, operating a profit-sharing scheme with his employees and was on the Radical wing of the Liberal Party. He became a member of the Metropolitan Board of Works, and in 1889 was elected to the first London County Council as a Progressive Party councillor representing North Kensington.

He stepped down from the council at the 1892 elections, having been nominated as Liberal candidate to contest the parliamentary seat of Kensington North.