John Orr (businessman)


John Orr was an Irish South African businessman who founded the department store John Orr's, eventually sold to Mr. Price.

Biography

Orr emigrated to South Africa in 1883, at age 25. He worked for Garlicks department store in Cape Town and then opened his own store in that city. In 1885, he moved to Kimberley and opened a drapery store on Jones Street for many decades. John Orr's opened branches across South Africa as well as Lourenço Marques. In 1951, it became a public company with 2,500 employees.

Other work and honours

Source: "Today in Kimberley's History"
John Orr was born to Dickson and Letitia Orr and educated in Ireland. In 1892 he married Mary Ellen Harper, with whom he had three sons and two daughters.
Orr's house on Lodge Road, Dunluce, or Lillienville as it was first known, was designed by D. W. Greatbatch for Gustav Bonas, a diamond buyer, in 1897. In 1902 Orr bought the house for the sum of £6 400, and gave it the name Dunluce. In 1974 Barlow Duce bought the house, restored it and donated it to the McGregor Museum.
Patrick Lambie, the Springbok rugby player, is a Orr's great-great-grandson; Orr's granddaughter is Lambie's grandmother, Alizanne Labuschagne, whose husband was Nic Labuschagne of KwaZulu-Natal rugby and a Scotland rugby International.