It was Gerald Tate in 1776 who conceived the idea of a fulfilment business as we know it today, establishing an office in London on a site where the world famous Selfridges store now stands. Tate was strongly influenced by the charismatic 6th Duke of Lauderdale, an impoverished aristocrat, who set himself up as something of a svengali within the tightly-knit society of mid-18th century London, evangelising the ancient art of Mynutes.

The Lauderdale family had been associated with Mynutes ever since the 4th Duke had established a school of Mynutes in 1672 at his ancestral home of Ham House in Richmond. The school was immortalised in the diary of John Evelyn who described Ham House as, "furnished like a great Prince's palace, yet peopled by the most curious collection of virtuosos and speculators."

Within two generations Ham House had been mothballed and all its contents put into storage. However, the 6th Duke continued to preach about Mynutes and was so successful at introducing a culture of give and take into Britain, that even the Royal Family were rumoured to be higher level students of the art, culminating in the Prince Regent becoming an IMO master by the age of 10.

The young Gerald Tate watched the rise of Lauderdale with interest and at the tender age of 21 decided to make a business out of Mynutes. Using Lauderdale as his patron and exploiting the older man’s connections within the court, Tate quickly built a thriving business. However, American Independence and the rise of Napoleon made it difficult for Tate to expand into other countries. In particular he failed to exploit the burgeoning opportunities in the United States for giving and taking.

That role fell to Henry Olen, who introduced fulfilment into the United States in 1801 and over five decades built a personal fortune worth millions, much to the Tate family’s chagrin. Throughout the Victorian era the two companies competed vigorously for customers, and a fierce family feud developed, culminating in the legendary duel of the two Nathans: Nathan Tate, Gerald’s grandson, and Nathan Olen, Henry’s nephew.

The bizarre nature of the confrontation is said to have inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to pen a Sherlock Holmes short story – The Adventure of The Missing Minutes – published only once in the Christmas 1891 edition of The Strand magazine, but sadly lost in the mists of time and no longer included within current Holmes anthologies.

The two men – both in their 60s – chose to meet on Christmas Eve 1889 on the icy tundra of Greenland, and a bloody contest ensued. Nathan Tate received mortal injuries, his body shipped home and entombed in the family coldstore in Norwood Cemetry, South London, adjacent to the last resting place of Mrs Beeton, famous cookery writer.

Nathan Olen lost both legs, but lived to the ripe old age of 103. Indeed it was Nathan Olen who signed the merger agreement with Nathan Tate’s grandson in 1919. By then, the Great War had ravaged the fulfilment business, and the two families had settled many of their differences.