Three factors influenced the long and successful life of Raymond Burton, the businessman and philanthropist, who has died aged 93. They were, first, his father Sir Montague Burton's eponymous clothing business, second, his deep affection for his native Yorkshire and third, his Jewish roots. Sir Montague had four children, a daughter, Barbara, then Stanley, and finally identical twins Raymond and Arnold. The boys were brought up in the business. As youngsters, they were often seen hurtling around their father's Leeds factory on their tricycles. By then, only two decades after it was founded in 1903 with a £100 loan, Burton's was making and selling thousands of men's suits each week.
Burton's success lay in mass producing made-to-measure suits, at a price the working man could afford. Burton was an enlightened employer, believing that success came from paying decent wages to employees. The factories had canteens, health and pensions schemes and even chiropodists and dentists.
The business flourished, and by 1925 was the largest chain of tailoring stores in the world. Montague, who had been born Meshe Osinksy and arrived in Britain as a 15-year-old refugee from Lithuania, was knighted in 1931 for "furthering industrial relations and world peace".
Raymond was sent to Clifton college and then on to Trinity College, Cambridge, and finally to Harvard to gain an MBA. The second world war interrupted his fledgling business career. He was commissioned in Royal Artillery and served in India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Back home, the family business had turned to war work, making uniforms and later "demob suits", where it had one third of the total market.
Raymond, Arnold and Stanley joined the board after the war, Raymond being given responsibility for the property portfolio. Already vast, by the time of Sir Montague's death in 1952 the group had 616 stores and 14 factories. Although the three brothers were central to the business, they felt that to provide for future management the company should acquire Jackson the Tailor, a smaller company. Lionel Jacobson, Jackson's chairman and also a self-made Jewish immigrant, became Burton's chairman.
Raymond moved to London to chair Peter Robinson, the women's fashion chain that Burton's acquired in 1946. He was also deputy chair of the parent company. During his time at Peter Robinson, Raymond set up the first Top Shop, in the basement of Peter Robinson at Oxford Circus, to attack the young fashion market.
Meanwhile, he was developing his lifelong philanthropic interests, and cementing his cultural roots in Yorkshire. He had married Pamela Flatau in 1946 (Arnold married her sister Barbara) and bought a Georgian gothic pile, Whitwell Hall, with 25 acres, in North Yorkshire. In the 1970s, Raymond's last decade on the Burton board, the business changed its name to the Burton Group, acquired other chains such as Evans and Dorothy Perkins and developed Top Shop and later Top Man as stand-alone retail chains. In 1977, Ralph Halpern became chief executive, and in 1997 it became Arcadia Group.
Arnold and Raymond enjoyed their wealth, indulging their passion for exotic motor cars. They were a moderately successful rally team, although in 1958 they were both injured when their car skidded over an embankment during an Alpine Rally. This did nothing to lessen Raymond's enthusiasm for cars, and in his 80s he was one of the first purchasers of the two-door Bentley GT.Raymond retired in 1981, to concentrate on his philanthropic activities, for which he was appointed CBE in 1995. He liked to back new ventures, rather than simply adding his name to organisations already enjoying success.
He was an active supporter of York University, where he built the Raymond Burton Library for Humanities Research, joking that he needed the library to house his own extensive collection of books, playbills and manuscripts relating to Yorkshire. It is said that he no sooner sent parts of his collection to the library than he acquired new assets, including a 1399 account roll of the Paternoster Guild, which had been missing since the 1880s. He also re-established in York another guild, the Merchants of the Staple.
An early advocate of environmental farming, he set up a model farm. He backed, among other causes, the Ryedale festival, the Laurence Sterne Trust, the Civic Trust and the Arboretum Trust at Castle Howard. He was a member of the £1,000-a-head Drogheda Circle, which financed new productions at the Royal Opera House.
His philanthropy was not confined to Yorkshire. In London, he was an involved and enthusiastic supporter and benefactor of the Jewish Museum, where he was chair and later president. He purchased a Grade II listed building for the museum in the late 1980s, and in 2002 supported the purchase of an adjoining former piano factory. Last year, although his health was fading, he was able to witness the completion and opening of the new museum, of which he was immensely proud.
Pamela died in 2002. He is survived by his second wife, Diana, whom he had known since they were 17. He is also survived by his two daughters from his first marriage, Harriet and Jane, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.