Sir A. Maclean, Who Lived in N.Z. Has Spread His Fortune

Wanganui Chronicle, 4 May 1948, Page 5

Sir A. Maclean, Who Lived in N.Z. Has Spread His Fortune

(Special N.Z.P.A. Correspondent) Recd. 7.55 p.m. London, May 3 Sir Alexander Maclean, who was born in Glasgow in 1872, was taken to New Zealand at an early age, where he was educated at the Auckland Grammar School, and later returned to England to become a successful manufacturing chemist, left £286,921. Known in England as "the man who created the famous Maclean smile,” he left £5OO to each of his five grandchildren, and an extra £lOOO to one of them, Susan, daughter of Mr. Donald Maclean, “in appreciation of many years of happiness as a young child.” , Now aged 10 and at boarding school, she went to live with Sir Alexander at the age of 18 months, be-

came his favourite granddaughter, and "brought sunshine into his life." Other bequests in the will were'— £5OO in New Zealand currency to Mrs. Arthur Finlayson, of Mount Eden, Auckland, “for an old friendship and memories"; £5OO to Mr. W. S. Pope, "n.y personal secretary," whose services over a period of more than 25 years I valued and much appreciated." He left £5OO to Elsie Bath, “my secretary”; £5OO to Thomas J. Weatherel. chauffeur, and £250 to R. Wyatt, gardener, if in his service. A sum of £5OOO has been left to his | brother-in-law, £5OO to his niece, £2OO I each to his executors, and the residue i to such charitable institutions or I other charitable objects in England or i elsewhere as his trustees select. 1 While in his ’teens Sir Alexander Mac'ean ran awav from home in Auckland, and later arrived in the Australian goldfields. A prophecy by people when Sir Alexander was six

that he would make a great fortune or become Prime Minister came true. In 1919 he came to England as a representative of an American firm of corset manufacturers, but this apparently was too tame for he started his own business as a manufacturing chemist. With a handful of workers- the business grew to such an extent that within six years the firm moved to a factory at Park Royal. In the meantime Sir Alexander met Mr. McGeorge, also a Scot, who was a skilled chemist. The famous Maclean’s tooth paste was marketed in 1928, and two years later the production of a stomach powder began. Sir Alexander became Sir Alexander in 1939, 20 years after he started :in in England. He married I Miss Elsie Searle, but Lady Maclean I survived her husband for only a few weeks. She died on March 27, six | weeks after Sir Alexander’s death.