ENORMOUS WEALTH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23044, 21 November 1936, Page 23

ENORMOUS WEALTH

SIR JOHN ELLERMAN The estate of the late Sir John Ellerman, the shipowner and industrialist and the richest man England has ever known, has, it was revealed recently, been resworn at £36,684,994. This huge sum does not represent the total value of Sir John’s estate, for it does not take into account certain properties owned by him in the United States and. Canada These Properties are expected to add another £1,000,000 or £2,000,000, so that the ultimate value of the estate will approach £40,000,000. As Sir John died when Great Britain was only beginning to recover from the economic depression, the value of the securities he held, particularly the shipping properties, is probably greater to-day than at his death. The estate is by far the largest with which the Inland Revenue Department has had to deal. Already £14,600,000 has been paid in death duties, but as on estates exceeding £2,000,000 m value duty is paid at the rate of 50 per cent., the ultimate figure that will accrue to the Exchequer under this heading will approach £2O 000,000. It is estimated that Sir John paid at least £20,000,000 in income tax and super tax. . , , ' , The delay in assessing the estate has been due not only to its size, but to its complexity and the fact that Sir. John's interests were so widespread. In his will, published in 1933, Sir John left to his son, Sir John Reeves Ellerman. the present baronet a legacy of £600,000, a trust legacy of £2,000,000 and the residue also in trust. To his daughter, who was married m 1927 to Mr Kenneth Macpherson, an author, he left £600,000 and a further legacy of £600,000 in trust for her To his widow he left £150,000, a life annuity of £30,000 free of tax, and the use of ’his London house and his household and personal effects. . The present baronet, who is 26. as the residuary legatee, owns the bulk of the fortune, after allowance has been made for death duties. Like his father, he is a man of simple tastes, whose chief interest in life is his business. Shortly after his father’s death he married Miss Esther de Sola, who had been his friend from childhood. The late baronet, who was born in Hull, was the son of a German consular official. He went to school in Birmingham, came to London as a youth, and became a clerk in an accountant’s office. t In his twenties he started as an accountant on his own, and inheriting £20.000 from his father, plunged into big business. After a shipping deal by which he made between £1,000.000 and £2.000,000, he bought fresh shipping lines and piled up his millions, until the time came when he paid the Treasury 13s 3d out of every £1 he made.