LEADER PASSES

Evening Post, Issue 2, 2 July 1932, Page 11

LEADER PASSES

LATE LORD INCHCAPE

VA' PASSION FOR WORK

ALWAYS A SAILOR

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

LONDON, 27th May.

By the death of the Earl of Inchcape, at the age of 79, the world of shipping, industry, and finance loses one of its most arresting and outstanding personalities. Lord Inchcape had been lunching on board his/yacht, Hover, lying off Monte Carlo.. He was going up to his cabin "when he showed signs of sudden indisposition. His valet rushed forward and caught him, and he died almost at once. Lady Inchcape was in the yacht ■with him. Death was due to a svyMen heart attack. -• . ■ ■" James Lyle Maclcay was born at Arbroath' on 11th September, 1852, to Mr. James Mackay, the owner and commander of a . succession of small barques, in one of which the boy had his first voyage, at the age of sis, to Archangel. He was always fond of the sea and' seafaring men, and yachting was a favourite relaxation of his maturity.: The. escapades of his boyhood included some unauthorised visits in small craft to the Inehcape Bock with the girl friend and companion, Jane _ Paterabn Shanks, whom he married in 1883, and who exercised a wise and gracious influence over his career. When he was raised to the peerage in 1911' as' Lord Inehcapo of Strathnaver she heartily approved of the choice of the title Inchcape,, as i did also the Commissioners of Northern Lights. One of the latest of the P. and 0. ships is called the Strathnaver, a departure from the: Eastern names usually employed. DIVERSITY OF INTERESTS. Throughout his long career Lord Inchcape was a man of extraordinary energy and diversified activities, .'.'he greater part of Ms earlier business life was spent in India, but later his interests extended to most parts of the world, while the important Government and departmental committees of which he was either the chairman or a member were legion. .By the general public ho will most .bo remembered as chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. By the shipping world itself he was regarded as peculiarly its own leader, representing all that was ibest in-conservative finance linked with vigorous and. far-seeing enterprise; a man quick to think and act, but slow to speak. , ' From 1897 to 1911 he sat on the Council of India—a span of 14 years, which witnessed, perhaps, the period of his greatest activity. In 1898-39 he served on the committee appointed by the Government to inquire into increasing, the commercial intelligence Provided by the Board of Trade, a subject which at that time was attracting groat attention. Then followed his commercial mission to .China as His Majesty's Special Commissioner and Plenipotentiary. Lord ' t Inchcape's activities continued unabated during the war, and from 1914 to 1919 he was chairman of the committee on rates of hire for vessels chartered by the Government. Among other bodies on which he served were Lord Cunliffe's Committee on Currency, Treasury Committee on purchasing gold direct from, the mines, control of bank amalgamations (chairman),, aviation, ,and : Commercial Intelligence Committees. ■ .-.-,-,. . '. ~-■■: ■ '„•. ■".:■.■■-. AFTER THE WAR. His immense influence and thorough knowledge .of the shipping business made him enormously useful after the Armistice in disposing of the.remnants of the gigantic- material the war had brought into being. He took over all the Government ships, and he was able to dispose of_ them for £35,000,000, in turn to individuals and companies. The glory of this transaction, was increased by' the fact that ho would not accept any remuneration. . , ■ Even this transaction was not the end of Lord In'ehcape's service. He took up the disposal of 418 ex-enemy ships which had been allotted under the Peace Treaty to' Great Britain and he,had to risk £20,000,000"to do this. He also went to India, and was able to dispose of the Mesopotamian war-craft for over £1,000,000, refusing even to be reimbursed his own expenses. Then he sold, on account of the Government, all the prize vessels captured from the enemy. ' PERSONAL TOUCH. "The sea to him was more than a boundless field of commerce," writes "One Who Knew Him" in the "Daily' •Express," "few corners of; which he had leftuntilled. He loved it with a sailor's love. He loved ships and he knew all about them. "He was an honorary captain in the .Royal Naval Reserve, and I doubt whether any in his.long string of honours pleased him more. "In his day-he met and knew everybody in Government, banking, and trade, but the company he liked best was that of shipping men and of ship's officers and crews. • ■ , "Not a vessel of his ever left port that he was not on the dock to see her oft. Not a vessel of his ever arrived that he did not at once set aside twenty minutes for a privato man-to-man talk with her-captain. "Lord Inchcape never lost the personal touch in the conduct of his vast enterprises. Every man in the service , of the P. and O. and its allied lines knew and felt that he had.in the chief an understanding, just, and always . accessible friend. Every man also knew that however hard ho worked the chief was working harder. ;, ■ "I can remember his telling me when ■well over seventy-fivo that he went down every morning to Leadenhall street with the same tingling keenness, the, same alacrity to get in touch with the problems of the day, as when he first sailed for India over fifty years earlier. ' A GREAT TRACJEDY. Lord and Lady Inehcapo suffered a severe bereavement by the loss of their third daughter, the Hon. Elsie Mackay, in attempting an east-to-west Atlantic flight in 1928 with Captain Hinchliffe. The machine, the "Endeavour," left Cranwell on 13th March and was not seen again. It was afterwards announced by Mr. Churchill, Chancellor.of the Exchequer, that he had received and accepted on behalf, of the nation a gift of £500,000 in memory of tho Hon. EMo Maekay. "Lord and Lady Inchcape, her parents, and their children desire," said Mr. Churchill,"as none of them wants to benefit by her death, to place in trust for the nation this sum, the residue of her estate which passed to them." The money was to accumulate for fifty years at compound interest, and to be applied to the reduction of the National Debt. Lord Inchcape also gave £10,000 to bo used so that there should be no complaint by other sufferers from tho disaster in which his daughter lost her life. This had reference to Mrs. Hinchliffe and her two daughters. THE YACHT OFFICE. It would almost be true to say that Lord Inchcape died in his office. He had long used the Rover , as headquarters for his business. Much of his time_ was spent on board the yacht, and it was there that he.would discuss