FEARLESS GAMBLER

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 5 March 1935, Page 7

FEARLESS GAMBLER

TOOK STAGGERING RISKS £500,000 LOST IN TWO YEARS MILLION FRANCS ON TWO CARDS From Our Own Correspondent. (By Air Mail.) LONDON, Feb. 9. An Anglo-Indian knight, -who has been described as “the most fearless gambler of all time” has just been buried at Agra—where the fortune he lost at baccarat was made. He was Sir Edwin John, once India’s most famous cotton merchant. He. died at Gwalior, in Central India, at the age of 78.

An old friend of his family revealed in London this week some of Sir Edwin’s. gambling secrets. “Sir Edwin, always a courageous—some would say reckless—gambler, flashed through the casinos of Europe like a meteor just after the war,” he said.

“In two seasons he lost his share of the family fortune—probably half a million pounds—which had been made by the sale of the family cotton mills at Agra towards the end of the war. • V

“The cotton and jute mills had been sold to an Indian group for a fabulous price and Sir Edwin came to Europe with his pockets full of money. “He had a burning desire to ‘sting’ the Greek syndicate at Deauville and other well-known professional gamblers in Nice and Paris. He pitted himself and his fortune against the most astute and powerful professional gamblers that Europe has ever known. He played a lone hand and he lost, but he never complained.

“I remember an occasion in Paris when he gambled at stakes so high that even the winning of a million francs On the turn of two cards did not prevent him from being a heavy loser at the end of the evening. “The risks he took were staggering, and he met his losses without turning a hair. It w«as inevitable that he must fail against those, who quite fairly, according to the ‘rules’ oi gambling, took advantage of his run of bad luck.

“Nemesis overtook him, and. towards the end of his hectic two years in Europe he was involved in trouble over a dishonoured cheque. He bitterly resented the incident, and always held that he had acted honour* ably. At any rate, against the advice of liis friends, he honoured his debt. “He went back to India, sadly disillusioned but < uncomplaining, and settled down to a quiet life among his friends, many of whom were Indian Frinces.

“Sir Edwin’s ruling passion was baccarat, but he also, gambled heavily on the race course.”