William Richard Sutton

Who was William Richard Sutton?

William Richard Sutton was the founder of the UK's first door-to-door long distance parcel service and founder of the William Sutton housing trust.

Born at London's Cheapside, he founded the business of Sutton and Co., general carriers in 1861. He noted that the Royal Mail could carry letters from door to door, but they did not carry parcels; instead the sender had to arrange for delivery to a railway station, goods freight to a station near the destination, and then make separate arrangements for delivery to the final destination. Sutton Carriers would take care of all those stages. The railway companies obstructed this and Sutton took them to court with a case that lasted over seven years; the House of Lords ruled to break the railway companies' monopoly on pricing and allowed him to deliver packages door-to-door. At his death in 1900 his business had grown to 600 branches. Sutton Carriers was eventually nationalised in 1950s.

Sutton also had a partnership in Sutton, Carden and Co. which was a brewer, bottler, distiller, hotelier and merchant of wines, tea, coffee, and tobacco.

He died at his home in Adelaide Crescent, Hove, and was buried in West Norwood Cemetery.