HEIR TO £20,000.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 28 April 1937, Page 3

HEIR TO £20,000.

MAY BE IN AUSTRALIA, OLD MAN WITH HOUSE FULL OF CATS LONDON, March 27. Regular dividend cheques from Aus Indian companies may provide a clue to the next-of-kin of a man who lived among working-class people in Islington, London, and has left a fortune estimated at about £20,000 in invest ments and property. Since so mucih of his money was invested in Australia, it is thought that he may have had relatives there. For years John Thomas Wilmott, University man, retired bank manager, lived alone except for his housekeeper in a big house. People thought him strange; tales began to spread that he was a miser—tales which were founded only on idle gossip—but no one except 1 a few peojile suspected that he was wealthy. The house was filled with cats which the housekeeper looked after. There were rooms which were stored with lumber. The old bank manager hardly ever spoke to his neighbours, and never mixed with them. Few people came to see him. He dressed in ciothes which were of a good cut, but he always looked shabby. Possibly about three people were aware of his secret. One was the manager of a shop where for years Mr Wilmott the cheques he received from dividends. ‘ ‘ They used to range from £2 to £7,' ’ the shopkeeper stated. “They were from, a couple of dozen different holdings, and 1 don’t suppose he changed all the cheques with me. “Many of them were with Australian companies. “In his early days I understood, he had studied for the church. His housekeeper was devoted to him. He always said he would see that she was provided for in his will when he made one. But he kept putting it off and putting it off and died without making one.”