Shares Crash on Financier’s Death

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 85, 1 July 1927, Page 9

Shares Crash on Financier’s Death

LONDON SENSATION BIG SLUMP ON EXCHANGE By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright LONDON, Thursday. The death occurred yesterday under sensational circumstances of Mr. James White, a well-known financier and sportsman. Mr. White’s dead body was foiind in a bedroom at his racing establishment at Foxhill, Swindon. A bottle of poison was beside him. Some correspondence found in the bedrooin was handed to the coroner. A sensational drop occurred in certain shares on the London Stock Exchange when the news of Mr. White’s death was announced. British Controlled Oilfields (preferred) slumped from 13s 4d to Ss, reducing the market value by £1,500,000. The newspaper “Sporting Life” says the tragedy will precipitate a financial crash unparalleled since the Whitaker Wright sensation. “Not long ago Mr. White was worth £4,000,000. Yesterday he chose death rather than face the world a ruined man,” says the paper. “His financial eclipse must bring thousands of people to ruin. “His friends in sporting and theatrical circles will reel under the blow. An intimate friend says Mr. White wanted £900,000 yesterday. He had almost raised that huge sum, but in the end he failed. “The financier left his house in Park Street, Mayfair, and went to Foxhill. “From there he telephoned yesterday morning to Mrs. White, who hurried to Foxhill. She was too late. She found a note, but Mr. White was dead with a bottle of poison beside his bed.” Domestics employed at the Foxhill residence state that when Mr. White arrived there he gave orders that all the women on the staff should go to the Swindon Theatre. He said he was not to be called until 12.30. When a footman called him there was no response. The door of the bedroom was locked so the footman procured a ladder and climbed in at the window. He found Mr. White dead. There was an immense sensation on the Stock Exchange when the news was rumoured some time before its confirmation, and there v/ere falls in a number of shares. Mr. 'White had a romantic career. Of humble parentage he began life as a brickmaker at Rochdale, where he was born in 1878. When he was 19 he purchased a provincial theatre for £IOO. From that time onward everything he touched turned into money. His biggest deal was in 1919, when he was a member of a syndicate which paid £ 5,000,000 for the Horrocks and Crewdson cotton firm. Later he purchased Covent Garden Estate from the Beecham Trust. He had also financed boxing matches, but his dearest affection was Daly’s Theatre, of which he was chairman.— A. and N.Z.