THE MARGARINE KING’S PHILANTHROPY

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 190, 8 May 1937, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE MARGARINE KING’S PHILANTHROPY

Every Sunday Was Visiting Day

Mr. Henry Van Den Bergh, the man who introduced margarine to England, died recently, and with his death can now be revealed a secret that he kept for sixty years. This ebdity-six-year-old Jew was a philanthropist, but dreaded publicity. He adopted strange but successful measures bv which he was able to give £150.(l0O to the poor without having his good deeds discussed by the rest of the world. His charitable gifts to public bodies only are known, because they could not be concealed from annual reports, but the world knew nothing of an ill-dress-ed man who slipped out of a Kensington Palace Gardens mansion to do good by stealth in the poorest quarters of London. Few people know that the former margarine king spent Saturday sitting in a hospital ward chatting to the sick poor. His secret was given by Mr. Jau Rus, an official of the Dutch Church, Austin Friars, E.C., and one of his helpers. Mr. Rus said: “Mr. Van Don Bergh formed a panel of eight clergymen representing all branches of the Christian faith. These clergymen, scattered all over London, bad instructions to report lo him all cases of distress in their parishes. “Mr. Van Den Bergh received a list of such cases each week, ami personally investigated them. “He devoted Sunday to this purpose. ‘.‘lie and 1 would visit the homes of these people, and to avoid attracting attention or embarrassing the people he assisted, he made certain changes to his appearance. “A pair of much-worn brown shoes, a threadbare grey overcoat, and a battered old felt hat had a special place in Mr. lan Den Bergh's wardrobe for what he called ‘visiting day.' "In this attire he visited the homes of four or five destitute people almost every Sunday. “He did it for the twenty-live years I knew him, but his secret philanthropy goes back sixty years.

I “We went to all parts of Loudon, sometimes by tube, and sometimes in his motor-ear. When he used his motor-car the chauffeur had instructions to drop us in the main road, leaving us to find our own way in the warren of alleys and passages to which his weekly list took us. He thought a motor-ear in such areas ostentatious display. “His treatment of cases differed. “Some people would lie put on his private pension list, receiving from him say ten shillings a week for life. Others would be put on the pension list of a charitable institution which he supported. lie also either found employment or set up in business people whom he thought would make good. "He opened shops l'or some. “Approximately 5000 people received his aid as the result of these Sunday trips to the homes of the poor. “He had a habit of slipping money into the hands of people just as he was leaving them. He would tell sensitive people that it was ‘just a loan.’ “The professional beggar could do nothing with this philanthropist." Mr. Van Den Bergh found other ways of (doing good quietly. Again in the clothes he wore on such occasions he would wait for the boys coming out of the Jewish Free School for poor children. He would take them to tea, and in this way pick out exceptionally brilliant scholars. He made the path to college and university easier for such boys, many of whom are now well established iu various professions. Mr. Van Lien Bergh was the despair of Dora, his Dutch cook, at Christmas time, because she was called upon to cook dozens of extra puddings for distribution to the poor. He also entertained at his home 150 poor children every year at this time.

He expressed his views on how to give in a limit message to bis four children. It runs: “I'he cause of charity is better served by regular annual donations or covenanted subscriptions than by large legacies bequeathed at death. I hope that you, so far as your means will allow, will support charitable institutions irrespective of creed.’’