Ruth Belville

Elizabeth Ruth Naomi Belville (5 March 1854 – 7 December 1943), also known as the Greenwich Time Lady, was a businesswoman from London.

She, her mother Maria Elizabeth, and her father John Henry, sold people the time.

His widow, Maria, was granted the privilege of carrying on the work as a means of livelihood and continued the business until her retirement in 1892 when she was in her eighties.

[4] It had been made, with a gold case, for the Duke of Sussex, who rejected it because it "looked like a bedpan".

[5] When it was given to John Henry, he changed the case to silver because he was worried thieves might steal a gold watch.