Michael Gutteridge

Michael Gutteridge (1842–1935) was an English Methodist and businessman who founded a successful drapery business in Naples, and the Wesley House seminary in Cambridge, England. The Italian fashion brand Gutteridge still exists, using the strapline "dal 1878" ("since 1878") as part of its image. Gutteridge died on 26 May 1935. another source states that Gutteridge himself appears in the novel as "the Englishman" described as "il justo", "the just man".

Possible Scottish heritage The website of the Gutteridge company describes Gutteridge as Scottish (fondato ... dallo scozzese Michael Gutteridge) and asserts that his father-in-law was the principal textile producer in Scotland (con il supporto del suocero allora principale produttore tessile in Scozia), but other sources agree that he was born in Selby and that his father-in-law was Samuel Cooke of Liversedge, Yorkshire.