Charles Cheers Wakefield

Learning the oil trade

Born in Liverpool, Wakefield entered oil broking rather than his father’s civil-service occupation. Work for an American petroleum company took him abroad. He founded C. C. Wakefield & Co. in 1899, initially dealing in lubricants and appliances.

The enterprise began with prior commercial experience and contacts. The later brand story should not obscure the earlier trade in which he learned to work.

Sources for this section: [1]

Publicity through sponsorship

Castrol became closely associated with motor racing. Wakefield supported Henry Segrave’s Golden Arrow and financed a speed trophy.

Sponsorship joined the cost of an attempt to the opportunity to publicise its result. It did not make the sponsor the vehicle’s designer or turn an advertisement into a controlled comparison of lubricants.

Sources for this section: [2]

Civic office and philanthropy

He served as lord mayor of London in 1915–1916, promoted wartime charities and later supported hospitals and other institutions.

The Wakefield Trust supported charitable work in East London.

These activities brought a businessman into civic and public life. They should be described as work with institutions, rather than converted into an unsupported account of universal popularity or commercial virtue.

Sources for this section: [1] · [2]

Reading the promotional record today

The Richard Roberts Archive preserves company advertising proofs in two guard books. Their missing years create a dating problem even when day and publication are supplied.

Wakefield remained active in business until shortly before his death in January 1941.

The surviving publicity is valuable because it shows how the enterprise addressed its audience. It requires a different reading from a technical test, a ledger or the personal career of the founder.

Sources for this section: [3] · [1]