MILLIONAIRE IN A VILLA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21165, 23 April 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

MILLIONAIRE IN A VILLA.

WIDOW DISCHARGES WISHES. £IOO,OOO GIFT TO CHARITY. 9 Mrs. L. C. Kecne, the widow of a former director of a British insurance company, who has decided to give £IOO.OOO to charity from the fortune of £1,144,201 left by her husband, Mr. J. H. Keene, has stated the reasons which prompted her gifts. "My husband," Mrs. Keene said, " always expressed the wish that charities should benefit very considerably from the fortune he had made. The will he left was made 30 years ago when he was comparatively a poor man. But before his death last September ho talked to mo about what ho had intended to give away. So I mado up my mind to give £IOO,OOO away with the firm belief that I should be carrying out his wishes. " Hy husband took no prominent part in local affairs, spending most of his time in his garden or working in connection with the business of the company. He travelled up to town almost daily until he became ill a few weeks before ho died. I intend to continue living here." Although he was so wealthy, Mr. Kecne and his wife—thero is no familylived in a modest villa on the main Chelmsford road. There were only two maidservants in (he house, which might easily have been looked upon as the homo of a comfortably-situated business man, rather than that of a millionaire. Mr. Keene was of the most retiring disposition, and very few people knew that he was so wealthy. His father was one of the founders of the insurance company, which ho entered as a boy.

But in and around Chelmsford Mr. Iveenc was well known for his generosity. Friends state that scores of families were receiving money from him weekly until the time of his death, but not even his most intimate friend knew who they were.

" Mr. Kccne was not the man to let anyone think he was wealthy," one friend stated. "If he knew that people had spoken of his generosity he was deeply distressed. He never, in any way, courted publicity. " The decision of Mrs. Keene to give away £IOO,OOO is characteristic of her. She and her husband were deeply attached.