Marcus Sieff, Baron Sieff of Brimpton - Biography

Marcus Joseph Sieff, Baron Sieff of Brimpton OBE (2 July 1913 – 23 February 2001) was a Jewish British businessman, and chairman of his family company, the retailler Marks & Spencer from 1972 to 1982. He was also a leading figure in UK Zionism.

Sieff was born in Didsbury, Manchester, the second son of Israel Sieff. Starting work for the family company in Hammersmith, London in 1935, Marcus first visited Palestine in 1939.

Sieff joined the Royal Artillery in the British Army at the outbreak of World War II, winning an OBE in 1944 for gallant service. Exiting the British Army at the rank of Colonel, he returned to M&S, but was asked in 1948 by first Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion to become an adviser on transportation and supplies to the Israeli Defence ministry. Sieff joined the Israeli Army, and helped coordinate M&S goods and finances to support the newly founded state. Sieff later became chairman of the Export Committee for Israel from 1965 to 1968, honorary president of the Joint Israel Appeal, president of the Anglo-Israel chamber of commerce, and chancellor of the Weizmann Institute of Science. In 1974 UK Foreign Secretary James Callaghan asked Sieff to become British ambassador to Israel, but Sieff declined.

Sieff returned to Britain in 1951 to take over the M&S food department, which he expanded from 14% of total sales in 1956 to over 25% in 1968. He was made a director and chairman of M&S in 1974 and served on the board until his death. After stepping down as chairman in 1984, he became honorary lifetime President. In retirement he was a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, and the first chairman of Newspaper Publishing, the publishers of The Independent between 1986 and 1993.

Married four times, his fourth wife was Polish widow Lily Moretzki (née Spatz), whom he married in London in 1963. Lily ran daily most of his charitable associations, and then nursed him during his final years. Knighted in 1971, he was created a life peer in 1980 as Baron Sieff of Brimpton, of Brimpton in the Royal County of Berkshire.