BUILDING A FORTUNE

Evening Star, Issue 21638, 6 February 1934, Page 12

BUILDING A FORTUNE

PAWNBROKER'S £775,000 STARTING ON 10s A WEEK. A young man sixty-three years ago took over a small pawnbroker’s and diamond merchant’s business in London. By sheer hard work through many years he built it up to be one of the biggest of its kind in the city. The man died a few weeks ago, and it lias been revealed that he left property valued, “ go far as can at present be ascertained,” as £BOO,OOO, With -a net personality of £775.000. „ , , Mr Thomas Miller Sutton, pawnbroker and jeweller, the man in question, died on December 7, aged 86. His wife, Mrs Dulce Marian Sutton, died shortly afterwards. She was 81. How Mr Sutton built up his fortune after starting life as a pawnbroker’s assistant on 10s a week was told by his son, Mr Edmund Miller Sutton, of Purley, Surrey,’ who has taken his father’s place in the business. “My father,” he stated, lived only for his business, and managed it up to the time of his death. He continued to be at the shop sharp at 9 each morning, and would work until 6 o’clock. Toward the end it was not money that interested him—it was just his hobby, much as other men play golf.” Mr Sutton left £50,000 and his freehold property to Mr Edmund Sutton, and £50,000 on trust for his daughter, Mrs Maud Elizabeth Woollett. The residue of his property he loft equally between his son and daughter, after leaving £3,500 to charities, and certain other bequests,