Luka Ćelović

Luka Ćelović (Serbian Cyrillic Лука Ћеловић; 18 October 1854 in Pridvorci, near Trebinje – 15 August 1929 in Belgrade) was a Serbian wholesaler, merchant and rentier. At the beginning of the 20th century he was one of the most influential people in Serbia, a patriot and a great funder, also a philanthropist of education. He was a president of Belgrade Cooperative.

He finished his elementary school in: Trebinje, Banja Luka and Brčko, after basic school, he did not attend further education. He had to escape from Bosnia and Hercegovina in 1872 and then came to Belgrade, where for his countryman an Archimandrite Nićifor Dučić has found him a job him as an apprentice in then famous store held by Radosavljević & Ignjatijević.

Three years later, when Herzegovina Uprising (1875-1878) has started, Ćelović went back to his native Hercegovina as a volunteer soldier. In combat against Turks he was lightly wounded, but soon has recovered and continued to fight. When Serbia declared a war on Ottoman Empire, volunteers from Hercegovina went back to Belgrade, so Luka has continued combating in booth Serbo–Turkish wars. After the war, with support of his countrymen, a notable traders Aleksa Krsmanović and Rista Parnanos, Ćelović has started as an independent merchant of souch goods as: (plums, wheat and others. In fall of 1882 the Belgrade Cooperative was founded, as a small enterprise assistance funds. In 1899 Ćelović was elected as a president of board in Cooperative. Barely literate, self-taught, with hard work he made a Belgrade Cooperative one of strongest Serbian financial funds.

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