Charles Welch

“ KITSON, JAMES, first Baron Airedale (1835–1911) , iron and steel manufacturer, second of the four sons of James Kitson of Elmete Hall, Yorkshire (1807–1885) , by his wife Ann, daughter of John Newton of Leeds, was born at Leeds on 22 Sept. 1835. His father, who started life in humble circumstances and was a friend of George Stephenson, established engineering works at Airedale and proved a pioneer of engineering industry in the north of England; the first locomotive seen in the West Riding came from his workshop; he was mayor of Leeds in 1860-2. ”

“ Aldenham, although staunch and outspoken both as tory and churchman, maintained the friendliest relations with those who differed from him. He cherished versatile interests outside commerce, politics, and ecclesiastical affairs. ”

“ Harben, who remained connected with the undertaking for sixty years, converted it into a colossal concern. In 1854 the company, mainly on Harben's advice, started a scheme of life assurance for the working classes; the new departure was at first hampered chiefly by the rivalry of the Safety Life Assurance Company, of which Cobden and Bright were directors, but which soon collapsed. Harben was appointed secretary of the Prudential on 26 June 1856, and soon proved that industrial life assurance was practicable. ”

“ In 1905 he proposed to place 100,000l. in the hands of the Salvation Army for the purpose of settling poor people on neglected land in the United Kingdom, in establishing them as petty cultivators, and supporting them and their families until the land should become productive; the advance to be paid back by the settlers, and then to be given by the Salvation Army to King Edward's Hospital Fund in twenty-five annual instalments. Herring defended the scheme with eagerness when it was criticised as impracticable (The Times, 13 Feb. 1906) , and it was put into operation. ”

“ Gibbs, who was a J.P. for Hertfordshire and Middlesex, and high sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1884, was created Baron Aldenham, of Aldenham, on 31 Jan. 1896. A strong churchman, Gibbs was a munificent benefactor to the church. With Lord John Manners, seventh duke of Rutland [q. v. Suppl. II] , he liberally supported the Anglican sisterhood connected with Christ Church, Albany Street, one of the earliest established in London. With other members of his family he gave largely towards building, endowing, and furnishing Keble College, Oxford, and was a member of its council. ”

“ HERRING, GEORGE (1832–1906) , philanthropist, born in 1832 of obscure parentage, is said to have begun working life as a carver in a boiled beef shop on Ludgate Hill (The Times, 3 Nov. 1906) , but this statement has been denied. By judicious betting on horse-races he soon added to his income. He then became, in a small way at first, and in a very large way later, a turf commission agent. In 1855, during his early days on the turf, he was an important witness against William Palmer [q. v.] , a betting man, who was convicted of poisoning another betting man, John Parsons Cook. ”

“ Meanwhile Blount mainly devoted his energies to the promotion of railway enterprise in France. In 1836 France had only one short line between Strassburg and Bâle. In 1838 the French government's bill for the construction of seven great trunk-lines under the control of the state was defeated, and the way thrown open to private enterprise. Blount offered M. Dufaure, then minister of public works, to construct a line from Paris to Rouen, proposing to raise 600,000l. in England and the same amount in France, on the minister's undertaking to give a guarantee for the third 600,000l. ”

“ In 1878 he was unanimously elected chairman of the committee organised to resist a threatened increase of duty on tobacco. In 1900–1 Wills took a leading part in the ‘combine’ promoted by British tobacco manufacturers to combat the contemplated American ‘trust,’ serving as chairman until his death of the Imperial Tobacco Company, which acquired in 1901 at a cost of 11,957,000l. the business of thirteen tobacco manufacturing concerns in the United Kingdom.
Wills was a prominent member of the liberal party in Bristol and was president of the Anchor Society in 1866. ”

“ The old system of requiring the firm to make the light in conformity with prescribed specifications was abandoned, and Chance with rare exceptions was left to design the light himself. He personally superintended every detail of the work, and from a sense of patriotism declined to patent improvements but made them public property. At the Paris Exhibition of 1867 the instruments of his design were proved by scientific tests to be superior in efficiency to similar apparatus of French manufacture. ”

“ CHANCE, Sir JAMES TIMMINS, first baronet (1814–1902) , manufacturer and lighthouse engineer, born at Birmingham on 22 March 1814, was the eldest of the six sons of William Chance (1788–1856) , merchant and glass manufacturer, of Spring Grove, Birmingham (high bailiff 1829-30) , by his wife Phoebe (d. 1865) , fourth daughter of James Timmins of Birmingham. From a private school at Totteridge James passed to University College, London, where he gained high honours in languages, mathematics, and science. ”

“ Educated at Madras College, St. Andrews, Keay was apprenticed in 1856 to the Commercial Bank of Scotland, and in 1862 went to India to manage branches of the Government Bank of Bengal, which was recently started to develop the cotton trade between India and England. He next entered the service of Sir Salar Jung, minister of Hyderabad. After a successful public career he opened a private banking and mercantile business at Hyderabad, and founded the cotton spinning and weaving mills now known as the Hyderabad (Deccan) Spinning and Weaving Co. ”

“ HARBEN, Sir HENRY (1823–1911) , pioneer of industrial life assurance, born in Bloomsbury on 24 Aug. 1823, was eldest son of Henry Harben of Bloomsbury by his wife Sarah, daughter of Benjamin Andrade. He was first cousin to Mr. Joseph Chamberlain. The Harben family was originally engaged in banking at Lewes, but Henry's grandfather was a partner in the provision stores of Harben & Larkin of Whitechapel, London, and his father also carried on a wholesale business in the City. ”

“ His grandfather, Antony Gibbs (1756-1845) , founded the firm in 1787 in Spain, with branches in Portugal, Peru, and Ecuador; the London house was opened in September 1808. In 1816 Gibbs's father and his uncle William (1790-1875) became partners, and in 1875 Henry Hucks Gibbs succeeded his uncle William, who was head of the firm from 1843 till death. In 1881 an older firm, established in 1770 at Bristol (as Gibbs, Bright & Co.) by Lord Aldenham's grand-uncle George (1753-1828) , elder brother of Antony Gibbs, was taken over by the still existing firm of Antony Gibbs & Sons. ”

“ He frequently travelled abroad in the interests of his oppressed co-religionists. In 1875 he visited the Holy Land and subsequently founded with Lord Rothschild the first secular and industrial school in Jerusalem. On the outbreak, in 1882, of the violent Jewish persecution in Russia he went to the Continent, at the request of the Mansion House Committee for the Russian Jews, to control and direct the ensuing stream of emigration. ”

“ In 1894 Blount resigned the chairmanship of the Chemin de fer de l'Ouest. A popular agitation condemned as a military peril the control by a foreigner of the railways of the country. The French government handsomely acknowledged Blount's services, and his fellow directors elected him honorary president. He long maintained his position in English and French society in Paris, and was for many years president of the British chamber of commerce there. His financial interests extended beyond France. ”

“ After private education at Greenwich and Southgate, Aird joined on his eighteenth birthday his father's business, which was soon known as John Aird & Sons. He was entrusted with the removal of the 1851 exhibition buildings (erected by his father) and their reconstruction as the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. The firm now engaged in large enterprises both in this country and abroad. They constructed reservoirs at Hampton and Staines, and the Bockton plant of the Gas Light and Coke Company. ”

“ CRIPPS, WILFRED JOSEPH (1841–1903) , writer on plate, was descended from an ancient Cirencester family, members of which took a prominent part in the affairs of the town from the time of Elizabeth, and gained their wealth from the great wool trade of the Cotswolds. His grandfather, Joseph Cripps, sat for Cirencester in parliament, with one short interruption, from 1806 until his death in 1841, when he was succeeded in the representation by his son, William Cripps. ”

“ By his energy he did much to extend its operations, became head of the firm on the death of his father in 1884, and to the end of his life never relaxed his interest in the active management. The firm, which was reconstructed in 1888 under the style of Bass, Ratcliff & Gretton, Ltd., has buildings covering over 160 acres of land, employs over 3000 men, pays over 300,000l. a year in duty, and has a revenue of over 5,000,000l. per annum.
Bass entered parliament in 1865 as liberal member for Stafford, represented East Staffordshire 1868-85, and the Burton division of Staffordshire 1885-6. ”

“ Educated privately at Clapham, George entered at an early age the family coach-making business in Oxford Street, which his great-grandfather had founded, and on the death of his father in 1866 he carried on the business with George Henry Maberly, who joined the firm in 1858 and died in December 1901. ”

“ But it was the manufacture and perfection of dioptric apparatus for lighthouses which came to absorb Chance's attention. This difficult manufacture, originally a French invention, was first carried on in England by Messrs. Cookson & Co. of South Shields from 1831 to 1845, when it became again the monopoly of two firms in Paris. About 1850 the manufacture was taken up by Chance's firm. M. Tabouret, a French expert, was engaged for its superintendence, but he left the Chances' service in 1853. Two years later the manufacture began in earnest under James Chance's direction. ”

“ His grandfather, the first Henry Overton Wills (1761–1826) , who was the earliest of the family to settle in Bristol, married Anne, eldest daughter of William Day of that place, on 24 June 1790; he joined his father-in-law in the tobacco trade and obtained a predominant interest in the firm, which his sons and grandsons greatly developed, all making immense fortunes. ”

“ By instituting the 'Tit-Bits' prize competitions, including the offer (on 17 Nov. 1883) of a house, 'Tit-Bits Villa,' at Dulwich, of the value of 800l. as one of the first prizes, he appealed in a new fashion to a widespread popular instinct which has since been developed to immense profit and in endless ways by the proprietors of other publications. ”

“ KITTON, FREDERICK GEORGE (1856–1904) , writer on Dickens, born at Golding Street, Heigham, Norwich, on 5 May 1856, was son of Frederick Kitton, tobacconist, who made some reputation as a microscopist. His mother's maiden name was Mary Spence. Coming to London at seventeen to follow the occupation of an artist and wood-engraver, he served as apprentice on the staff of the 'Graphic' He attained much skill as an etcher, and contributed to artistic journals. Inheriting from his father a capacity for research, he soon turned to literary pursuits. ”

“ After a short experience of commercial life in the London office of the Provincial Bank of Ireland, he entered the home office. Through his father's influence he went much in youth into whig society, and occasionally attended the breakfast parties at Holland House. ”

“ He was a frequent correspondent of 'The Times,' chiefly on yachting and other seafaring matters. About two years before his death he was seized with paralysis of the lower limbs and retired to his vessel, in which he continued to live, bearing his affliction with courage and cheerfulness. ”

“ About one million tons of masonry were employed in its construction, and at one time 20,000 men (90 per cent, of them natives) were engaged. Aird received for his services the grand cordon of the Medjidieh in 1902. Later undertakings of the firm include the Royal Edward Dock at Avonmouth (1902-8) , the Tanjong Pagar Dock works at Singapore, the barrage at Esneh (opened in 1909) , and the elevation of the height of the Assuan dam.
Aird became an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1859 and a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1887. ”

“ He was chosen in 1880 president of the Leeds Liberal Association, and in the same year took a conspicuous part in securing the return of Gladstone for the borough. He was from 1883 to 1890 president of the National Liberal Federation. After unsuccessfully contesting central Leeds in 1886, he represented the Colne Valley division of the West Riding from 1892 to 1907. He was active in promoting old age pensions, and was elected president of the National Old Age Pensions League at its inauguration on 24 October 1894. ”

“ He next secured an appointment on the staff of the Dutch-Rhenish railway, then under English management, and soon rose to the highest post, bringing the line, then on the verge of bankruptcy, into a state of comparative success. On his retirement the directors retained his partial services as their permanent adviser. In 1861 the directors of the London, Chatham and Dover railway (which, formed by amalgamation in 1859, was then in the hands of a receiver) made him their general manager. ”

“ James Murray as editor, Aldenham helped to settle the final form of the 'New English Dictionary,' and read and annotated every proof down to a few weeks before his death. He wrote many of the articles on words connected with banking, currency, and commerce, one of the last being 'pound.' For the Early English Text Society he edited in 1868 the 'Romance of the Chevelere Assigne.' For the Roxburghe Club, of which he was a member, he prepared in 1873 the 'Hystorie of the moste noble knight Plasidas,' and in 1884 the 'Life and Martyrdom of St. ”

“ She survived him with four sons and six daughters. Louis Samuel Montagu, the eldest son, succeeded to the peerage, and Edwin Samuel Montagu, the second son, has been M.P. for the Chesterton division of Cambridgeshire since 1906, and became under-secretary for India in 1910. By a provision of his will Swaythling debarred his children and those claiming through them from participation in his estate (beyond a life annuity of l00l.) should they at his death not themselves be professing, or be married to a person not professing, the Jewish religion. ”