HORATIO BOTTOMLEY DEAD

Taranaki Daily News, 27 May 1933, Page 9

HORATIO BOTTOMLEY DEAD

VICTORY BOND CLUB SCANDAL PENAL SERVITUDE TERM SERVED. FOUNDED THE FINANCIAL TIMES. DENIAL OF AN OLD-AGE PENSION. Horatio Bottomley, who was sentenced in 1922 to seven years’ penal servitude for converting to his own use £5OOO belonging to the Victory Bond Club, died yesterday in London, states a Press Association cable. Bottomley was a member of . Parliament and for many years was connected with large financial undertaking in the City, some of which later aroused much criticism. He acted as a pioneer of Western Australian mining. The Financial Times was founded by Bottomley, who subsequently became proprietor of The Sun, He afterwards founded John Bull, of which he was act-ing-editor. John Bull was noted during the Great War for the support it gave soldiers’ complaints. The paper’s offices were destroyed during an air raid. Bottomley was a nephew of George Jacob Holyoake, the founder of the modem co-operate movement, and was closely associated with Charles Bradlaugh in his political work. He was the principal defendant in cases brought by the Crown in 1893 and 1900, in both of which he successfully conducted his own case; he was generally regarded as the best “lay lawyer” in the country. Bottomley was the author and chief advocate of the Business Government idea. He contested Hornsey in 1887 and from 1906 to 1912 represented South Hackney under the Liberal banner. He owned at one time several well-known racehorses.

As a sequel to other litigation Bottomley was on February 22, 1922, served with summonses at the instance of the Director of Public Prosecutions charging him with converting £5OOO belonging to the Victory Bond Club. After protracted proceedings at Bow Street and a long trial at the Central Criminal Court he was found guilty of fraudulent conversion and sentenced to seven years’ penal servitude, a subsequent appeal being dismissed.

Mrs. Lowe, Bottomley’s lifelong friend, says his death was hastened by the “cruel refusal of an old-age pension,” states a Press Association cable received at an early hour this morning.