THE SIX RICHEST MEN IN BRITAIN
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 1960.
WEEKEND Friell
Turning the spotlight on a man in the shadows
The giant is so shy
SIR JOHN PILES
UP MILLIONS
IN SECRET
• Richest of all Britain's rich men is least in the public oyo. Ho controls his
vast shipping and. Financial interests with such anonymity that some of his executives have never met him.
IT is safe enough to say that you would not spot Britain's richest man in a crowd-for he would never willingly appear in a crowd.
Even if you were one of the thousands working
to increase his immense fortune the chances are you would never have set eyes on him.
Even
if you were one of his top executives you might never have spoken to him.
In the past quarter of century only tw photographs of him have been published. His only public utterance in that period were the words "I have no statement to make."
A
recluse
work.
"IR JOHN ELLERMAN....... this picture, taken in 1953, was the first to appear for 20 years. There has been nona sincs,
by BERNARD HARRIS
No interest
Application
he
constantly drummed
undis- his property owned abroad his total lessons. It stood in an strange ideas about the Import- fortune was about £40,000,000. tinguished streek, hemmed in by ance of saving money; et résist-
working-class houses. Death
duties
Look ing the least “extravagance, and,
Later the couple moved to an £18,000,000, The new Bir founder of the Ellerman mil- At the outbreak of the First above all, of avoking publlelly.
Jahn Ellerman-then 2 unpretenlous house near Sun- lions, the man who was said World War it was reckoned that
He was once asked why he
The grounds were Inherited most of what was ningdale, in collect nothing but money. old Sir John, who had been had not sent his boy to Elon,
surrounded by a seven-foot wall. "I was fearfu},"
Jeft. he replied, Old Sir John, son
topped by broken glass. It was of a made a baronet in 1903, owned Cerman consular official at Huil, one-eighth of the British mer "lest other, boys night borrow AL
But the Inheritance did not no use asking there for Sir John
Callers money from my defenceless and end there.
were told started his business career as a cantile marine,
Sir John was soon Elfermon. teenage clerk in an accountant's By then his problem was to inexperienced son and lead him to show that he had acquired that the occupant of the house office. He was a genius at figures, know
wh01 to do with his to bad habits."
was "Mr Fountain." all hs father's passion for with an immense capacity for money. He had nearly £1,000,000
any secrecy, fils distaste for a year coming, in-and spent
Intrusion into his affairs. barely £5,000 a year on himself
For a me Sir John worked and his family.
So young John went to Mal- Five weeks after his father's in the Ellerman offices in the Though he did not drink vern instead. But he was soon death he married dark-haired. City. But his visita grew tower.
taken away his father is all good-looking Esther Leopolda de himself, he realised that the to have feared he might be kid- Sola, one of his tow childhood it was more often to be found British working man always
napped and put in the hands would. So in the Kaiser's war of privato tutors. when beer was short and ihn brewers were in a panic, he invested heavily in breweries, extremely He bought up peres of property In London and provincial efties. Though he hated publicity, he invested in newspapers-and wan an one lime & considerable share-
holder in The Times.
He did so well in the firm that the day. came when he felt stiflex in asking for a partnership His request Wilk iefused. So Ellerman put on his hat and walked out,
He set up he
an accountant
will You
not And his private address in any reference book nor hils phone number in any directory. You would not come across hhn at a his own. And occasion- West End party, at a frst night, ally he would buy up an alling at a race meeting-or Indeed at business, put it on its lect-and
spol
at then resell at a proft. where rich customarily forgather.
For Sir John Reeves Eller. mun, master of a fortune which
execed must
£60,000,000 and could approach £100 million, is
any
His flair Though he had little technieni knowledge of ships, he had particular flair for shipping com- a recluse. He has built an al panies. Over the years the house lines, as most impenetrable
flags of such famous woll
Buck HEL C. Parayanal. secrecy around himself.
under his
of
To understand why this is call's, Wilson came so, ono needs to consider the control-all of them today mem- character of his father, the tes of the Elleman group.
BRICK BRADFORD
KRIS/WHEREZ
ARD YOUT
ILL LOOK
THE
FOR HIM IN
CANAL!
no
rodents.
In the basement of the Natural There was no forma History Museum, studying the friends. engagement, no announcement bones of rats.
mice, and other the wedding, no reception. The few guests were taken by car to Sir John's house, where they learned that the wedding won to be at Cherisey (Surrey)
The boy tali. thin, and
shy showed interest in any kind of sport.
was acting is His only hobby plays which he wrote and pro- duced himself within the family register oftec.
circle.
The
For the bride of Britain's richest man there mille in a
no juxury hotel,
www
"
The which devoted shipping empire was showing Itself in the son's concentra- tion on natural history. Through the British Muscum (Natural History) he published
intense appilcation old Sir John had
buliding 10
超
In 1933 his father died. Though he would never allow himself to popular view that this hard old he bought man of 71 was by far the be photographed,
yacht, no vein on the Riviera the result of his research in control of a group of illustrated richest in Britain proved abun-
"The Families and Genera The honeymoon was spent in Living Rodents"-the first two weeklies.
dantly justified. He left nearly Sir John had two children--a twice as much as any Briton a cottage at Eastbourne where volumes of which ran to 1,388 boy and a girl. And into them before him-£36,084,994.
John had once had plano pages.
KRIS! THE BARGE
IP CLOSING IN ON HIM. HE FELL INTO THE CANAL...
OR WAS SHOT!
FOUR
JONES REVOLTING.
GOSH.
¡JUST LISTEN
TO THAT
PEACE
AND
QUIET
OBLIVIA, NOW THAT'S A NICE PEACEFUL
NAME
OBLIVIA
POP-Christmas Crackers!
*THE GREETINGS CARD UST GETS
BIGGER
BUGAY
YEAR
FERDINAND
I KNOW - BUT WHY "BUGCS GARAGE
AND *STEAMO LAUNDRIES?
By Paul Norris
WHAT AM I TO DO F KRIS HAS THE REMOTE-CONTROL
DEVICE FOR THE TIME-TOP BRICK IS IN THE TOP IN ANOTHER TIME CYCLE! WHAT AM I TO POZ,
ASAN
Because
"THEY_
SENT
CARDS
LAST
YEAR REMEMBER
er
MADDOCKS
ZINSTEAD. NEEAGH!
ME AND MY BIG MOUTH
By Gog
By Mik
With Sir
You can be SURE
if it's...
of
Sir John helped also to ¡produce PA Chocklist of Palaearctic and Indian Mom- mals. His wife," મ
gifted artist provided the Illustrations, While Ellerman hrs spent his days in study and his evenings #ti auch gentle relaxations as table tennis, bagatelle. aart! happening to his fortune?
ILFORD
LFORD
NEW
Lady Sheaffer
*SKRIPSERT" FOUNTAIN PEM
Noyer before- fountain pen to exprete your peraynale Laste in fine jewelry. Never goed en sink bottle...
uses drop-in cartridges of Skrip wing Buid.
GRITED PAPER COATS
IN RUSSIA THEY PLAY THE BALALAIKA
AND THEY DRINK
Carlsberg
ales Managers prefer
SWISSAIR
THE AIRLINE OF: SWITZERLAND
A
piano playing, what as been
Impregnable
Under the skilled guidance of expert advisers it nus bred piling up.
Look at some of the things
he owns.
The king-pin of his fortune 17 Ellerman Lines, which opera.es abou! 90 ocean-going Tiners, tottling more than 600,000 tons. The cost of replacing those ships-almost entirely owned by the quiet student of mice has been given as £100 million, Because Ellerman spends
50
PROPOSAL TO MANGE NA
OF LABOUR 7
PARTY
"It's OK
Foot's willing to compromise, he'll settle
for changing the name of the party leader!"
HORSE
KENYA
CYPRUS
ANIMAL PROTECTIOTY SCTY
LOVERS
"You think we've got trouble-look at the trish Ambasserur."
"I have a grave suspician, sir, that certain.subversive elements are trying to drive me to a grammatico! indiscretion."
British nurses
run hospital
in desert land
Sidi Bettache, Morocco. TACKING everything, except a roof, two British
nurses are helping more than 1,000 patients per month in an area of Morocco 34 miles from the nearest doctor or ambulance. Their treatment is free and the surgery and the two-bed maternity sertion are never empty.
The only help is from the Too mission receives, medical, wives of Amerlean offers and suppiles from Britain, but the l'omats.
Moroccan government Irvin Nurse Winifred Millward, of heavy duly on any imported Luton, has been here since 1939. goods, they prepare their own
Physiotherapist Dora Rapson, medicines. of St Albans, has been here eight
The girls once had a years. She is the strong hand in loaned them by a missionary on
the surgery,
Missionaries
Both girls are also missionaries they presch the New Tealament by telling the natives ample Bible stories.
int
CIT
home lerva But now they walk, ride a donkey or, when it available, an all-iron spring- less and noisy trap drawn by a thin horse whose bones rattle cach time he moves."
himself Hile on
and needs EO ttle in the way of dividends, the company has built up anand Impregnably strong position. with reserves of £43,000,000.
But his wide-ranging invest- The mission was started
Their house has no electricity, ments exteri far beyond 1929 by the Rev Cecil Hyde- no telephone and a letter takes shipping, Ho tas substantial Hills, who was vicar of Christ five days to reach Rabat, 36 Interests irt real estate,
church, St Albans, before he way miles away.
of archdeacon (notably nusvepapers
appointed in the
When they feel lonely the girls Morocco. After his death his hold a Daily Mirror and Sunday
two-person Sunday wife came to live here and she service, Pictorial), Ind in other in-
built a house la his memory. custrial securities.
They are centrod in a string of trusts founded by his father -among them the Ellerman Property Trust, Audley Trust, London General Investment Trust, and the Moorgate Trust. All these are foc, prosperous companies, with assets running tuto
many
milliona London General, for example, was pay- dividend in ing a 10 por cen
1940.
Its latest dividend is 20
fer cent. Investmento appear.
London Exprons Services."
Men may settle
in Polar
regions, they
they say
ing in the balanes sheet at DEVELOPMENT of the North and South Polar
£1,500,000 are worth twice that.
Permanent
In the Directory of Directors
regions has taken on a much greater signi- ficance, since the advent of atomic power, the dis- covery of great mineral deposits at the North Pole, and increasing warnings from the United Nations the permaneul that the world is slowly becoming over-populated:
Sir John is shown only as a
director of Ellerman Lines. But he is also director" of Audley Trust,
।་
A-tests Despite a much colder, climate -winter temperatures vary between 80 and 100 degrees bo-
the
New articles adopted by that Two reporta on taming the "The Argenting her already company provide that ene polar regions and perhaps started a successful tourist trado director whe absents himself eventually populating them are down to the Antarctic." " from board meetings for alx now being studied by the Arelle munihs
America can bo required to Institute of North vicato office. But the which has its headquarters in. {"permanent' director!! la specin Montreal. cally
excluded trom that provision which suggests that Ellerman is fiercasingly content to keep away from the centre of his business empire and leave the money-making to others.
To their intense regret Bir John and Lady Bilerman have no children. There, is 'no holt. So, although Bir John himself may be the greatest enigma mong the rich men of Britain, an even bigger question mark hangs over his millions; tinta.
What, in the fulness 07. time, is to happen to the biggest fortune ever accumulatest in this
** country.
"(tänden Kapram Karuten),
The first was by Dr Paul A. tow zero-It was an ideal testing Siple, scientific fender of the ground for both peaceful and American South Pale base miliary atomie projects.
The eocond report to during the International Geo- physical Yout
Institute dealt with the Canja- dian Aretio, Its author, Dr Douglas Leechman, 'an enthru- pologist recognised as one of the senior Areble experts, said:
"Commonplace'
He sat that settling in the Antarctic, may become almost contamorph to within the next generation.
“It is bolloved by many that we are entering a warm inter- glacial period. If the mean anual temperature should rise avati a few dogroes the melting Certainly within 10 years at the polar ice, caps would be there are apt to be enluules 1 upeoded, Bitch porind of the Antarelle, Alfter they will focrossing heat would make the ('progutty be the fappéties of men land-surrounded Arctic Oegan a jauniista initig... wenther,velations" "The Constad elvillag£}{N}**
London Express Šuputos),