“LUCKY FELLOW!”

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 12166, 4 October 1937, Page 1

“LUCKY FELLOW!”

HIS FORTUNE KILLED HIM SPENT £II,OOO IN FOUR YEARS •B.P. Times” Special Service.—By Air Mail London, Sept 11. Just over four years hgo Horace King, twenty-eight-year-old barman of Woodford Green, Essex, won £16,750 with a 10s Irish Sweepstake ticket. Everybody said: “Lucky fellow.” And so he would have been if he had not squandered most of it and died within four years from, the effects- of excessive drinking. If, for instance, he had invested the money at 4 per cent, his income would have been £670 a year, or nearly £l3 a week. And that compares well with the 37s Cd a week and his keep which his job as a barman brought him. When he died the coroner said: “Obviously this man entirely lost his head as a result of winning so much money.” This week it was revealed that King lost more than £II,OOO of his money as well as his head. Only £4,897 is left and letters of administration have been granted—he left no will—to his widow, Mrs Louisa King and his mother Mary King. How did he squander that £II,OOO in four years? Said Mr W. J. King, a brother: . “He was a mug. among twisters. For two years he spent wisely, but afterwards he took to drink.” Said Mr George Harris, who employed King as barman: “As soon as he got his money his whole nature changed. He was a jolly man, but the money made him suspicious of everybody, worry over his money so preyed on his mind that he took to drink.” Said a friend: “It was a pity he ever won the money. Until, then he was a fine fellow and a good worker. The money went to his .head. He found hundreds of false friends. He literally drank himself to death. I think in the end his craze for drink even overcame his desire to live. “In four years he spent £ll,OO0 — it was awful.”