UNUSUAL CAREER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22744, 3 December 1935, Page 10

UNUSUAL CAREER

VICAR WHO FOUNDED HOTELS A clergyman who divided his life between working for the Church and foundiug hotels has left the bulk of his £»1,000 estate to his adopted daughter, says the Daily Mail. He was the Rev. hrancis Thomas Bartlett Westlake, vicar ot Easton Maudit, Northamptonshire. Hw adopted daughter is Mies Betsy Pearson, who from early childhood was the constant companion of Mr Westlake auu Ins Hotels which he and his wife who was a clever business woman —founded and managed for years include the Savoy Hydro, Blackpool, and Westlake’s Hote., Queen’s promenade, Douglas, Isie ot Man. Miss Pearson told a Daily Mail reporter the story of Mr Westlake's career. “He was married while he was engaged in Church work in London, she said. “He became a great friend ot Charles ’Spurgeon, the famous Baptist preacher, through whose influence he joined the Baptist Church, and was later the? first Baptist minister' to preach m the Isle of Man. . “ While he was carrying out Ins church work in the island his wife opened and ran a guest house in Douglas. This was their first venture into the hotel business. In” 1900 Mr Westlake left the Baptist Church, and soon afterwards he and Mrs Westlake carried out the project ot founding. the Savoy Hydro, Blackpool. “While they were owning aud managing this hotel, Mr Westlake became a curate in the Church of England, and worked at Openshaw, Manchester, Oswalcltwistle and other parts of Lancashire. “ The. partnership between husband and wife was broken some years after the war, when Mrs Westlake —who did the greater part of the work of managing the hotels —died while we were on a holiday in the south of France. ~ “Soon afterwards Mr Westlake sold his founder’s in the Savoy Hydro, which then came under the control of a limited company, and devoted himself to his church work, which took him eventually to Easton Maudit.” In his will Mr Westlake directed his executors “to arrange, whatever might be the cost, that his remains should be buried at Nice in bis wife’s grave and his body taken there by land and sea, and not by air.” His wishes were carried out after nis death.