MAKERS OF MILLIONS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVIII, Issue 226, 22 August 1928, Page 7

MAKERS OF MILLIONS.

A FAMOUS FAMILY.

WILLS’S TOBACCO FORTUNES.

LONDON, Aug. 6. The late Sir George Wills, whoso estate has been provisionally sworn at £10,000,000 was the tenth member of the famous British tobacco manufacturing family to leave an estate exceeding £1,000,000. His fortune was the largest left in the country recently, except the late Lord Iveag’s £11,000,000. At the time of his death on July 11 last, Sir Georgo Wills was president of the Imperial Tobacco Company and a director of the British-Amorican Tobacco Company. The shares of the former are quoted at 114 s, the Wills’ family holding £32,000,000 worth. It is computed that the Exchequer will benefit to the extent of £4,000,000 under the maximum death duty rate of 40 per cent. During his lifetime Sir Georgo’s gifts to Bristol included £300,000 to the University, £60,000 to the hospital, and £75,000 to the Art Gallery.

NORTHCLIFFE’S £5,000,000.

The other Wills’s fortunes were ns follows:—Mr H. 0. Wills, £5,250,000; Mr Frederick Wills, £5,000,000: Sir Frederick Wills. £3,000.000; H. H. Wills, £2,750,000; Sir Edward Wills, £2,500,000. Among others in England who left more than £1,000,000 in recent years were:—Lord Strathcona, £6,750,000 ; Sir R. P. Houston, £6,000,000; Lord Northcliffe, £5,000,000; Lord Glentanar, £4,750,000 ; Viscount Bearstead, £4,000,000; and Lord Cowdray, £4,000,000. The American tobacco king, Mr James Duke, left £30,000,000.