KNIGHTHOOD CONFERRED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23858, 12 July 1939, Page 5

KNIGHTHOOD CONFERRED

SIR ALEXANDER MACLEAN BOYHOOD DAYS IN DOMINION (Special xo Daily Times) WELLINGTON, July 11. Private advice has been received in Wellington that Mr A. C. Maclean, who spent his boyhood in New Zealand and has a brother living in Wellington, received a Knighthood in the Birthday Honours. Since Sir Alexander Maclean left New Zealand as a young man he has had a remarkable business success in England, being the founder of. Maclean’s, Ltd., toothpaste manufacturers. Sir Alexander Maclean first came to New Zealand as a boy with his parents-in the sailing ship Waikato more than 50 years ago. They settled in Auckland, and he received his education there, but returned to England when he was 20. The rise of the London firm of manufacturing chemists of which Sir. Alexander was the active head until a few years ago, has been described as a business romance. In Brentford, London, it possesses one of the most picturesque and up-to-date factories in Britain. Five years ago it employed 300 persons. It is one of the largest advertisers of proprietary lines in Great Britain, and its wares sell throughout the world. Sir Alexander Maclean toured the,. North Island, renewing friendships, about four years ago, and he visited Auckland and Wellington as a passenger in the Empress of Britain last year. His brother, Mr Neil McLean, who resides in Wellington,' is a member of a firm with headquarters in Auckland. The two brothers have adopted different spellings of the name. The knighthood which Sir Alexander Maclean has received , was undoubtedly bestowed on, him in recognition of his munificent gifts to English charities.. An English newspaper recently reported that he had visited President Roosevelt, who, having been crippled by infantile paralysis, has an- interest which is mutual with one of Sir Alexander’s, the treatment of cripples.. Sir Alexander was in the news again in recent weeks, when he entertained the former Emperor of Abyssinia, Haile Selassie, at his Bournemouth home.