ROMANTIC LIFE STORY

Southland Times, Issue 21896, 23 December 1932, Page 15

ROMANTIC LIFE STORY

FORTUNE FROM FIVE POUNDS. THE GREAT RAND BOOM. A romantic life story is recalled by the death at Brighton, England, on September 13, of Mr Leopold Hirsch, of London, a retired financier. Mr Hirsch, who was in his 76th year, went to England in the middle "'eighties with only £5 in his pocket. He always remained proud of this fact. But though poor in material assets he was rich in the qualities which were to lead him on to wealth and fame—ambition, a keen brain, and an indomitable will to work and make good. Born at Beyersdorf, a small Bavarian village, Mr Hirsch went to England at a time when the production of diamonds was already an industry at Kimberley and gold had just been discovered on the Rand. He became a naturalized Englishman almost at once, but, to begin with, life was hard. His chance came when, a few years later, he met the late Sir Julius Wernher. The latter needed an honest broker who could be trusted to carry out the huge daily operations of Wernher, Beit and Company during the South African boom of the ’nineties, and, at the same time, one who could keep his own counsel. Mr Hirsch was chosen and thus the firm of L. Hirsch and Company came into being. From that day his fortunes never looked back.

A man of discriminating taste, Mr Hirsch spent part of his wealth in forming a collection of objects d’art, and his house in Kensington Palace Gardens, London, was a veritable museum. The finest examples of the 18th century English schools of painting could be seen there, together with some wonderful miniatures, bronzes and furniture. Mr Hirsch was loved by his dependants, especially those at Suisgill, in Sutherland, Scotland, a place he had for thirty-five years. If the children of a crofter or a keeper showed ability and financial assistance was required to forward their education he was always ready to give generously. During the war Mr Hirsch and his brothers financed and ran a military hospital in Fishmonger’s Hall.