HOTEL "KING'S" RISE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18585, 18 December 1923, Page 11

HOTEL "KING'S" RISE.

STARTED IN AN OFFICE.

DEATH OF MR. HARRIS,

Starting life as an office boy at 6s a week, and ending it as director of several wealthy companies and the acknowledged hotel " king" of Britain and America, such is the record of Mr. William Harris, who has just died at Leeds. Head of the firm of William' Harris and Company, chartered accountants, of Chancery Lane, Mr. Harris was also interested in the following concerns:Carlton Hotel (chairman), Ritz Hotel (chairman), Isle of Thanet Hotels (chairman), Hyde Park Hotel, Hits-Carlton Restaurants and Hotels, Atlantic City and New York (president), Ritz-Carlton Cigar Company (chairman) Mappin and Webb, London and Brazil (chairman), Meux's Brewery, Thome Bros., brewers (chairman), and Evian Hotels, France. Born in the Isle of Man, of poor parents, Mr. Harris received only a free elementary education. At 14 he entered an accountant's office in Manchester at 6s a week. By dint of spending all his spare time ana money in study, principally at evening classes, he succeeded in becoming articled to his firm when he was 21. Five years later he took the final examination of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, winning the first prize and a certificate of merit. Remembering his early struggles and the fact that his firm had allowed him to be articled free, Mr. Harris all his life refusedj to take premiums from youths who wished to join his own business. Joining the firm of Craig, Gardner, and Company, of Dublin, the head of which was Sir Robert Gardner. Mr. Harris came at last to London to open a branch for them. In the course of time he bought out the other partners and established his own business of Harris, Allen, and Company. This he succeeded in making one of the foremost accountancy businesses in the world, with branches in New York and Hamburg. . , , a j In the meantime Mr. Harris had floated the Welsbach Incandescent Company in London. Later he was called in as accountant for the Carlton Hotel, and by his skill he changed the position of the hotel from one of great insecurity to its present prosperous position. Having accomplished this, he was instrumental in the purchase of the Ritz Hotel by the Carlton Company. The beginning of many successful hotel interests was his reorganisation of the provision department of the HamburgAmerika Line, which was put into his hands by Herr Ballin. As a result of his superintendence, it is said that £50,000 was saved to the fleet in one year. From the Atlantic liners he extended his interests to America itself, and built the Ritz-Carlton Restaurant and Hotel at Alantic City, which has been described as the finest establishment of it;; kind in the world. .