THE MEANEST MAN

Cromwell Argus, Volume LXX, Issue 3627, 3 July 1939, Page 7

THE MEANEST MAN

More than once called the “meanest man in England,” an 86-year-old Bristol bachelor, who the day before he died said he could not afford a taxi was found to have left £156,000. He bequeathed most of it to the Exchequer for reduction of the national debt. 1 After a small estate duty has been paid and small bequests met, the Exchequer will receive more than £IOO,OOO. Albert John Grave lived in a oneroom lodging in a working-class district of Bristol. He lived frugally on 25/- a week. He smoked a clay pipe—briars were too dear —and carefully rationed himself to half-an-ounce of tobacco a week. His mid-day dinner at his lodgings cost him a shilling. He thought this too expensive and frequently walked to a restaurant where he could buy a cheaper meal. As he was going to the restaurant two months ago he fell. He was taken to hospital where a doctor ordered him home to bed. Next day he was worse. He would not call a doctor. “Can’t afford it,” he said, but his landlady persuaded him to go back to hospital. The doctor after an examination allowed him to go back home. “I advise you to take a taxi!” he said. Mr. Grave replied: “Taxi! Tut, tut, extravagance. I can’t afford a taxi. We’ll walk.” Next day “poor old Mr. Grave” was found dead in bed. His will directed his executors to pay four legacies of £SO each and the rest went to the State. “Mr. Grave was 86 years old,” his landlady, Mrs. Nicholls, said. “His whiskers hung down over his chest; we all thought he was too poor to shave. He scarcely ever let me light a fire in his room.”