THIRD OF MILLIONAIRE LINE

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1933, Page 5

THIRD OF MILLIONAIRE LINE

TRADITIONAL CHARITY BEQUEST. FATHER’S FEATS RECALLED. f . ■ ■ By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, July 16. Mr. Henry Trueman Mills, residing in Leicestershire, the third in a line of millionaires, left £2,840,000. Half goes m death duties. He bequeathed £150,000 to charities in accordance with family tradition. The death of Mr. Mills, the owner of extensive estates in Leicestershire and Norfolk, occurred at his home at Langton Hall, near Market Harborough. His father, Mr. John Trueman Mills, left a fortune of £4,250,000. Mr. Henry Trueman Mills, who was 72 years of age, was chairman of the Market Harborough bench of magistrates, and served as High Sheriff of Leicestershire in 1915. His father,. b<ord of the Manor of Leighton Buzzard, left him the greater part of his fortune. How “Squire Mills,” as he was known, was able to quadruple his inheritance from his father has never been publicly revealed, and is known only to a few who are intimately concerned with his private affairs. Throughout his life Mr. John Trueinan Mills, who died at the age of 88, imposed on himself a spartan-like rule from which he never departed. He rose at 7 a.m. every day, and dealt alone with the vast business which his exten-. sive estates and financial interests involved, disdaining the services of a secretary. By ten o’clock each night he would be in bed. In this manner he continued his work up to within a few weeks of his death. Next to business sport appealed to him most, and at the age of 88 he rode to hounds with the dash and vigour of a man of half his age. _ Mr. Mills dressed simply,, lived simply, and was a benefactor on a large .scale, but unostentatiously. Under his will he left two pictures by Murillo to the National Gallery, and several thousand pounds to religious societies and hospitals. . , One of the legatees was his granddaughter, Margot Lady Chesham, to whom he bequeathed £10,000.. The foundation of his gigantic fortune was an inheritance of £1,200,000 from his father, formerly a silk manufacturer.