Credit to Roger Betts

MONTAGUE BURTONS
Sheerness was obviously a busy town in the early 1930’s, busy enough for Montague Burtons, the gents tailoring establishment to open a branch here. This picture shows a very clean and tidy branch that stood on the corner of the Crescent and the High Street, to be exact the information on the back of the picture tells that it was 82,84,86 High Street and it’s company branch number was 396.
The shop opened on 15th August 1931and the first manager was Mr E H Woodall who was manager until March 1932 when the position was passed to Mr E R Smith. The salesman at the time of opening was Mr E Martin and the cashier was M M James. There were two porters, one was Mr Smith who apparently lasted only 2 or 3 days, and Mr Cowell who stayed until March 1932.
There were two apprentices in the shop in 1931, W Dorman and Dennis Sidney Emmerson, they were joined by A Wollage in 1932.
So much information on the back of this picture and it paints a picture of a very different way of running a retail business than we know today.
This photo was donated to the Minster Gatehouse very recently and I’ve got to say thanks Sally, along with the other bits --- brilliant xxx