The ethic of hard work that runs in the family

Meet Britain’s hardest working father and son – and they have finally put their feet up after working for combined total of forty-five years without taking a single day off. Stanley Foxwell, 76, has spent twenty-three  years working 16 hours a day – every day – running a newsagency

He bought the second shop in 1987 and asked the only person who shared his work ethic, his son Colin, to help manage it for the next twenty-two years – once again, without ever taking a day off. But after a combined total of forty-five years without the luxury of taking a holiday, Mr Foxwell has finally sold his two shops in order to enjoy his retirement, while his son is also taking a well-earned rest.

The pair, who live together in Essex, only took one day off a year, Christmas Day, and have together worked a combined total of 16,380 days without taking a break. Mr Foxwell Snr said starting at 4am and finishing at 7.30pm was hard work and now it was time for a rest so he could enjoy his retirement.

Mr Foxwell invested his savings into the business after briefly owning a shop in 1971 before going to work for a property company which bought up bookmakers. However, after spotting an opportunity to buy something he could ‘call his own’ in 1986 he bought his first shop in Higham’s Park, north London, for £45,000. A year later he bought the second shop in nearby Woodford Green for the same price. Mr Foxwell then persuaded his late wife Beatrice, who died from diabetes three years ago, and Colin to help him run a second shop. The father and son team would regularly get up at 4am to get to their shops for 5am and open the doors at 7am. After the stores close at 6pm the pair head off to the local cash and carry to replenish their stock before returning home at about 7.30pm.

Unmarried Colin joined his father’s business after giving up a boring office job because there was not enough ‘human contact’. He now hopes to take two months off work before starting the hunt for a new shop which he will buy and run himself after Christmas. Maybe these two men could go around the schools in their leisure time now and talk to the students on the importance of working hard and not expecting handouts – Great Britain once had a reputation for it’s people being hardworkers – and since then Labour has created an entire class of lazy layabouts, maybe these two men can make a bit of a difference.

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