Tag: London

British taste buds might not be so happy today without the innovation and entrepreneurialism of one Carlo Gatti. He is, after all, credited with being the first to offer ice cream at an affordable rate to the general public. He rose from a poor, isolated region in the Blenio Alpine Valley to become one of the most brilliant business marketing gurus of the Victorian era.

Carlo Gatti, 19th century ice-cream pioneer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Gatti was born in 1817 in Canton Ticino, a predominantly Italian-speaking region in Switzerland. Common speculation puts his place of birth in the village of Marogno which was then within the boundaries of the commune of Dongio. He was the youngest of six siblings born to Stefano and Apollonia Gatti.

As a child, Gatti showed little ambition, and regularly played truant from school. Like many young men in the region, Gatti couldn’t wait to leave in search of greater opportunities throughout industrialized Europe. A harsh beating at school provided the final push Gatti needed, and rather than returning home, he simply set off on a 600 mile walk to Paris, where his father was running a small business selling chestnuts.

Paris at the time was a hub of innovation and business. Cafes throughout the city offered coffee, ice cream and live music to all classes of people, and young Gatti certainly must have absorbed the atmosphere and learned from their management and business strategies. Rather than settling into the family business, however, Gatti turned his eyes on greener pastures.

In 1847, at the age of 30, Gatti arrive at Dover with his young wife, Maria Marioni. He quickly found a home in London and settled into life in the bustling Italian community in Holburn. He started out with a business he knew well, selling chestnuts and waffles from a little stall. Before long, however, two of his children died, and some suggest that this event spurred Gatti to greater ambition in pursuit of a better life for his family.

By 1849, Gatti went into business with Swiss chocolatier Battista Bolla. Together they opened a café restaurant, specializing in chocolate and ice cream – a treat previously reserved only for the very wealthy. The duo set up a Parisian chocolate making machine in their front window to attract passers-by, and soon business was bustling.

After exhibiting his chocolate machine at the Great Exhibition in 1851, he opened the first of five shops in Hungerford Market that thrived on selling the original “penny licks” – a penny’s worth of ice cream served in a shell. His penny ice cream was such a novelty that London’s streets were soon bustling with Italian ice cream vendors – or “Hokey Pokey men” – tempting customers to “ecco un poco” or “taste a little”.

In 1854, Hungerford Hall burned down, damaging the adjoining market. Fortunately, Gatti was insured and he was able to use the compensation to replace the structure with a grand music hall. Just a few years later, he sold his music hall at a healthy profit to the South Eastern Railway, and the hall was turned into Charing Cross station.

With the proceeds, he set up a second music hall which later became a cinema. Around the same time, Gatti built a huge “ice well” where he could store the tons of ice that he began importing from Norway. In 1862, he built a second ice house, and was established as the largest ice importer in London. Capitalizing on this, he set up a fleet of delivery carts to supply ice for household ice boxes.

Due to his entrepreneurial spirit, and careful business strategies, Gatti went on to found new confectioner’s shops, cafes, restaurants, and even the world’s largest billiards room. When Gatti died on September 6^th, 1878 in his home town of Dongio, all of his London businesses closed to pay their respects to the life of this immigrant who had truly achieved greatness.

Immigrants Made Good – Ernest Cassel

January 30, 2013

Alec Tritton

Immigrants Made Good 1 Comment

As one of the richest men of his day, Sir Ernest Cassel left a lasting mark on Britain’s history. He was a generous philanthropist, a wildly successful businessman, a close friend of royalty, and recipient of numerous honors and distinctions. Few would have expected such a legacy from a young, penniless German immigrant.

Ernest was the youngest of three children born to Amalia and Jacob Cassel. He was born on March 3, 1852, in Cologne, Germany. His father owned a small bank, and Ernest received a standard education up until the age of 14. At 14, he quit school and started an apprenticeship under J.W. Eltzbacher, a local banker who specialized in financing foreign business and large industrial ventures. Ernest had a natural knack for business, and with his outstanding capacity for hard work he quickly learned the ropes in the world of finance.

Shortly before his seventeenth birthday, Ernest set out for England. He arrived in Liverpool penniless, but with plenty of ambition. He quickly found a job working for a firm of grain merchants where he was paid £2 a week.

His true gifts lay in the world of banking, and he was soon working in Paris for a bank. His stint in Paris was short lived though, as the Franco-Prussian War soon broke out. Since he was born in Prussia, Paris was no longer safe for him, and he was forced to return to England where he soon found work in a London bank.

He began working as a confidential clerk for Louis Bischoffsheim in the financial house of Bischoffsheim and Gildschmidt. He became a fast friend of the Bischoffsheim family, and this led to rapid promotion through the ranks of the financial firm. By the time he was 22, Ernest was managing the bank at a salary of £5000 plus commission.

In 1878, Ernest was married to Annette Mary Maud Maxwell in a ceremony at Westminster. They had one child – a daughter, who they named Amalia Mary Maud Cassel. Tragedy struck before long, when Annette contracted tuberculosis and died within three years of their marriage. Ernest’s widowed sister and her children soon came to live in London, where she helped to run the household and look after little Amalia.

Ernest Cassel funerary monument, Kensal Green ... — Ernest Cassel funerary monument, Kensal Green Cemetery, London (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Despite Ernest’s personal losses, he prospered in the offices of Louis Bischoffsheim and in 1884 he began putting together his own financial deals. He developed business ventures in Turkey at first, and soon had substantial ventures in Sweden, South America, Egypt, South Africa, and the United States. By 1898, his independent business was so successful that left Bischoffsheim and Gildschmidt to open his own offices.

Ernest developed a friendship with Lord Willoughby de Broke and they jointly started a stud farm for breeding race horses. They began racing their bred horses, and it was at the tracks that Ernest met the Prince of Wales (soon to become King Edward VII), and a fast friendship formed between them.

Ernest Cassel received a number of public recognitions as well as foreign decorations. The first was the K.C.M.G. awarded by Queen Victoria for his importance in the financial world. King Edward awarded him the further distinctions of K.C.V.O., G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., G.C.B., and a privy councillorship.

Throughout his lifetime, Sir Ernest Cassel gave away nearly £2 million to public works and charities.

Escaping the Guillotine: French émigrés from Revolutionary France

January 25, 2013

Alec Tritton

Immigration 3 Comments

In the years following the French Revolution of 1789, a large number of Frenchmen fled France and took refuge abroad. Nearly one percent of the French population abruptly left France, including many members of the royal family and the French aristocracy, as well as priests, clergymen and others who had lost lands and privileges during the great uprisings.

While a large number of these émigrés gathered in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and in the United States, a significant number – particularly those from Normandy and north western France – found a safe haven in Great Britain. Though the British had nothing to gain politically from helping the Catholic French, Britain was, in fact, the only European nation to reach out to the émigrés with financial assistance.

The French refugees found an established French-speaking community in England where the Huguenots had previously settled. Some made their homes in Richmond, Surrey, though the largest community of émigrés settled in London, where they found a strong social structure and an active political lobby. In 1796, England’s Alien’s Act was renewed, and all émigrés were moved inland from the coasts and Channel Island.

By 1801, London’s West End and the Parish of St. Marylebone were populated with a substantial number of French political refugees. Aside from the 4,000 or so lay French Catholics, the area was home to some 5,600 priests and clergymen as well.

Other French communities thrived in London as well. Some settled in Soho where the Huguenots had established a French community. Others made their homes along Tottenham Court Road, Thames Street, Aldgate, Cripplegate, Temple Bar, Bishopsgate, and Shoreditch. Others still settled in Somers Town near Old Pancras Church, which was a predominantly Catholic area and the traditional burial grounds for English Catholics.

Of course, many members of the royal family and the aristocracy found a comfortable home in England as well. The comte d’Artois, the brother of Louis XVI, who would later become King Charles X spent the majority of the Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic years in England. Louis-Philippe, the duc d’Orleans (who would later become King Louis-Philippe) also took refuge in England after spending a number of years in Scandinavia and the United States.

A few émigrés were lucky enough to have English relatives who welcomed them into their homes. These were typically Stuart supporters who had followed James II to France. Many Walshes and Dillons, as well as the Duc and Duchesse de FitzJames numbered among the émigrés who fled to England at this time.

A large number of émigrés were not so lucky, unfortunately. The poorest settled in St. George’s Fields, Southwark, and many fell ill and died. Though a significant number suffered gravely during this time, this fact is often overlooked due to the fact that the more prominent émigrés were wealthy members of the church or aristocracy. Some prominent Britons like the Duchess of York and John Eardley Wilmot worked tirelessly to raise awareness. Through their efforts, they provided a measure of relief for the suffering émigré population.

Many working class émigrés were industrious, however, and established themselves fairly quickly. Some offered lessons in French, dancing, fencing, and chess. Others became tailors, seamstresses and hatmakers. Some opened boarding houses and restaurants. A number found work with the Post Office which gave them safe access to France where they were able to gather information.

The émigrés left a mark on England in more ways than one. Chapels, hospitals and schools were constructed by these industrious immigrants – many of which still remain today. St. Cross in Dudley Court, Soho Square, was the first built, followed by others in Somers Town, St. George’s Fields, Tottenham, and St. Mareylebone.

Immigrants Made Good – Ludwig Mond

January 11, 2013

Alec Tritton

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Ludwig Mond was inarguably one of the most successful and influential industrial chemists of his day. He not only made great strides in scientific research, but he became very successful in business as well, thanks to his unique business sense and enormous energy. He was well known as one of the founders of the alkali firm of Messrs. Brunner, Mond & Company and was an avid inventor, widely known for his philanthropic activities with many scientific institutions.

Mond was born on March 7, 1839 into a Jewish family in Cassel, Germany. His father was a fairly successful merchant, and was determined to provide young Ludwig with the best possible education. After completing his early studies in his home town, Ludwig was enrolled in the Polytechnic Institute of Cassel and went on to attend classes at the Universities of Marburg and Heidelberg.

His professors held him in high esteem, and though he never earned a degree, they provided him with glowing recommendations. Thanks to recommendations from such distinguished educators as Hermann Kolbe and Robert Bunsen, Ludwig was able to find employment at two German chemical companies.

When he decided to move to England in 1862, he put his education to good use once more, and was soon employed by John Hutchinson and Co. in Widnes. He returned to Germany for a short time, where he married his cousin Frida Lowenthal, but in 1866 he returned to Widnes and took up work with John Hutchinson once more.

Hutchinson’s company manufactured soda using the Leblanc process, but this process left a lot of black ash. Ludwig came up with a method for redeeming that black ash – which contained considerable amounts of sulfur – and he formed a partnership with John Hutchinson to recover and repurpose the sulfur through his patented process.

In 1872, Mond heard of work done by Ernest Solvay, a Belgian industrialist who was developing a more efficient soda manufacturing process. He formed a partnership with John Brunner and they began working on bringing Solvay’s ammonia-soda process to commercial viability. Together they set up as Brunner Mond and Company in a factory at Winnington, Northwich. Building on Solvay’s work, Mond quickly worked out the kinks that had hindered mass production, and within 20 years, Brunner Mond & Company had become the largest soda manufacturer in the world.

Commercial success hardly slowed Mond, however. An incurable tinkerer, he continued researching new chemical processes, looking for more efficient ways to produce valuable commodities. One of his greatest accomplishments was the discovery of nickel carbonyl, a compound that was previously unknown. Through the Mond process, he was able to easily decompose this compound to produce pure nickel. Ludwig founded the Mond Nickel Company near Swansea in Wales and began importing huge amounts of ores from mines in Canada.

He had an enormous passion for the sciences, and was a generous benefactor of many scientific societies, including the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the Royal Society, and the Italian Accademia de Lincei. He worked with Henry Roscoe to expand the Lancashire Chemical Society into a national Society of Chemical Industry. He became a member of the Royal Society in 1891, and was granted membership in the German Chemical Society, the Prussian Akademie der Wissenschaften, and the Societa Reale of Naples. Though he never earned a degree, he was granted honorary doctorates from the universities of Oxford, Manchester, Padua, and Heidelberg.

Ludwig Mond passed away on December 11, 1909, at ‘The Poplars’ – his London home near Regent’s Park.

Immigrants Made Good – Sir John Reeves Ellerman

January 4, 2013

Alec Tritton

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Although Sir John Ellerman was not technically an immigrant, his father immigrated to England from Hamburg in 1850 – shortly before John’s birth. He was the only son of Johann Hermann Ellermann, a German corn merchant and shipbroker who served as Hanover’s honorary consul in Hull. The Ellermann family quickly Anglicized their surname by dropping the second ‘n’, instead going by the name “Ellerman”.

John was born in Kingston upon Hull in 1862 to a German father and an English mother. His father died when John was just nine years old, leaving the family an estate of just £600; however, this early tragedy didn’t prevent him from going on to great success in life. He was, in fact, one of the very most successful entrepreneurs in all of British history – though few even know his name.

Though he hardly got along with his mother, she ensured that the young John received a good education. He spent a number of his childhood years in France before attending the King Edward VI School in Birmingham. When he turned 14, he found employment as an accountant which gave him a measure of freedom from his mother and allowed him to live independently.

Once he was fully certified as an accountant, he moved to England to seek his fortune. He was immediately offered a partnership in one of the leading British firms, but he turned it down, choosing instead to found his own practice, J. Ellerman & Co.

He was well ahead of his time, as one of the very first British businessmen with actual certification in accountancy. He put that training to good use, applying modern accounting practices to find floundering companies fit for takeover. He began buying up established businesses, choosing those that offered valuable products but were failing due to poor management. Under his oversight, these once-floundering businesses began to flourish. His first investment, the Brewery and Commercial Investment Trust, appreciated by 1300% in the first nine years of his management.

Few could have called Ellerman an innovator; however, his cautious investments and brilliant management paid off and assets rarely failed to flourish under his hand. In 1892, he launched into shipping, the industry that would truly make his fortune. He bought the Leyland Line in 1892 and sold it just nine years later to J.P. Morgan for £1.2 million. He immediately invested that capital into other shipping lines, and by 1917, Ellerman Lines owned 1.5 million tons of shipping.

He continued to invest in other interests as well. By 1918, Ellerman held stock in some 70 breweries, and several newspapers including the Financial Times, the Daily Mail, The Times, the Illustrated London News, and others. He launched into the coal industry, and by 1920 he held stake in over 22 mining interests. After WWI, many British aristocrats began selling off slices of their vast estates. Ellerman had cash to burn and he soon became a major landowner in London.

Despite his enormous financial success, Ellerman was an intensely private person. He lived quietly, and though he was made a baronet in 1905, he avoided further honours, choosing instead to live unostentatiously. He was very likely the richest man in England at the time, though his quiet lifestyle left journalists guessing. When he passed away in 1933, his estate was assessed at over £36 million.

Immigrants Made Good – Nathan Mayer Rothschild

December 21, 2012

Alec Tritton

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English: Nathan Mayer Rothschild. — Nathan Mayer Rothschild. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Nathan Mayer Rothschild was born on September 16, 1777 in Frankfurt, Germany. He was one of five sons, and the fourth child of Mayer Amschel Rothschild and Gutle Schnapper. In his brief 59 years, Nathan Rothschild would lead his four brothers to the peak of the financial world and synonymize the Rothschild name with international wealth and power.

Nathan was certainly the most restless and gifted of the Rothschild brood. He had enormous energy, creativity and ambition, and it came as no surprise when he left Frankfurt at age 21 to launch a branch of the family’s firm in Manchester. He initially worked as a textile merchant, but soon found his true passion working in the world of finance.

He moved to London and began trading bills of exchange through a banking enterprise that he founded in 1805. In 1806, Nathan married Hannah, the daughter of Levi Barent Cohen. This union lifted him into a prominent position in London society and provided him with invaluable access to business contacts among London’s elite. What may have taken years to accomplish was quickly within his grasp, and Nathan wasted no time amassing a substantial fortune.

His brothers, as part of the Rothschild network, were able to build on the foundation that Nathan had established. They were in position to achieve great things in the world of finance, and they quickly gathered fortunes of their own. As their fortunes skyrocketed, so did their social standing, and in 1816, Nathan’s two older brothers were granted noble status by the Austrian Emperor. The brothers prefixed the Rothschild name with von or de to show their new status; however, Nathan chose not to use his aristocratic title though he too was elevated.

He was a popular man, enormously respected and admired. He doted on his wife and children, providing for them indulgently. In the business world, his brusque determination and high standards were legendary. His London house, NM Rothschild, dealt in foreign currency exchange and gold bullion which brought him extraordinary success. The man was brilliant, and while his business dealings and strategies have been examined down through the years, few fully understand how he achieved such rapid supremacy on the world scene.

So enormous was his wealth and business success that he was approached with contracts from the British Government. Through 1814 and 1815, he supplied Wellington’s troops with gold coin, and went on to issue 26 government loans between 1818 and 1835.

Aside from his business successes, Nathan Rothschild was a prominent campaigner against the slave trade. He spoke out strongly against the slave trade and partially financed the 20 million pound government buyout of the slaves on Britain’s foreign plantations.

As with any figure who achieved such high status on the global scene, legends and conspiracy theories sprung up around the Rothschild name – and particularly around Nathan Rothschild. Many of these stories are largely embellished of have been twisted over time; however, the fact remains that Nathan Rothschild was truly one of the most successful immigrants in history. By the time he passed away in 1836, his personal fortune made up as much as 0.62% of British National income and he had established the Rothschild family as Europe’s most prominent investment bankers.

The Shotely Bridge Swordmakers

November 14, 2012

Alec Tritton

Immigration 1 Comment

In the late 1600s, a colony of Germans quietly settled in at Shotely Bridge and set up what would become the heart of Britain’s sword making industry. The little group of families, led by the Oleys and Moles, had fled from Solingen in 1688, though no one knows why for certain. Some have suggested that they were fleeing religious persecution. Other sources indicate that they may have been escaping the wrath of a local sword maker’s guild whose secrets they had betrayed.

Whatever the reason for their arrival, they found an ideal home in Shotely Bridge. Naturally, they wanted a locale where they could maintain the secrecy of their trade, and they spent some time searching for the perfect home. They initially looked near London before making their way north, exploring along the banks of the Tyne. It wasn’t until 1691 that they came upon the sequestered spot a few miles from Ebchester. The tiny village of Shotely Bridge was remote and the very soft water of the Derwent was perfect for tempering steel.

It is quite apparent that a number of German immigrants had settled in the region earlier in the century as well, and this may be an additional factor in why the sword makers chose to make Shotely Bridge their home. The register in the nearby town of Ebchester shows an entry recording “Eleanor, the daughter of Matthias Wrightson Oley, baptized 1628.” The Wrightsons were an old family in Ebchester and it seems that a number of German Oleys had arrived in the region several decades before the Shotely Bridge settlers.

They were an overall respectable people. The quiet settlers were industrious with strong moral and religious principles. They established themselves easily, mingling freely with natives of the dale. The sword makers of Shotely Bridge quickly gained a reputation for the outstanding quality of their swords, knives and cutlery. They became widely known for their skill in engraving and gilding and the art of tempering steel – an art that was unknown in England before their arrival. There was one weapon though, that none in England could imitate: the hollow sword blade. These blades took special skill that few but the Shotely Bridge sword makers possessed.

When the Napoleonic wars began, demand for good swords rose sharply and Shotely Bridge was the primary provider of the needed weapons. Rather than manufacturing their own iron as was common at the time, the sword makers purchased high quality Swedish iron from Danmora. From this high quality iron they produced the steel used in their craft.

For many years the Germans, and particularly the Oley family, enjoyed great prosperity. They enjoyed high profits, their workmen had high wages, and there was an enormous demand for their products. When William Oley died in 1808, nearly the whole of the village and surrounding territories were owned by the Oley family.

Unfortunately, William Oley’s sons neglected the trade. Competition in the sword making industry increased, and as the Napoleonic war ended, so did the demand.

Today, most of the old German families have faded away, though a few remain. Besides a few Oleys, we can find a number of Molls (though they now spell their name Mole). Sword blades are no longer made in Shotely Bridge, however, and the art has been lost with time and neglect.

Further Reading

The Sword Makers of Shotley Bridge

Swordsmiths in England

Surnames of North East England

Short Sea Migration to the UK

November 8, 2012

Alec Tritton

Immigration No Comments

As travel increased in the 19^th century, British railway companies began to branch into cross-channel services. The 60 or so railway operating companies owned a huge fleet of some 1,250 ships, ranging from tugs and dredgers to cross-channel ferries and pleasure steamers. Many of the larger companies invested massively in the venture, placing a huge value on providing comfortable and dependable short sea crossings.

British ports served as a gateway from continental Europe to Canada and the United States, thus, there was a great demand for the services that the railways offered. The railway companies met the demand by taking the shortest practicable sea route, and even constructing special harbours to connect the ship route to existing railways. Some railway companies even took ownership of strategic canals to facilitate this process.

Early in the game, the government had attempted to protect smaller existing enterprises by putting stringent restrictions in place to prevent railway companies from owning ships. Of course, the railways quickly found loopholes in the legislation by simply setting up lightly disguised subsidiary companies. The London and South Western Railway, for example, held a large interest in the South Western Steam Navigation Co, founded in 1842. The Brighton and Continental Steam Packet Co, founded in 1847, was held in large part by the London Brighton and South Coast Railway.

By 1863, however, the railways were collectively granted permission to run passenger steamers across the channel. From early on, the railways ran large operations of steamers from the ports of Goole, Grimsby and Hull in Humber. Most routes were focused primarily on cargo, meaning that there was typically room for no more than 12 passengers. The routes from Hull as well as the routes linking Grimsby with large European ports, on the other hand, ran steamers that could accommodate up to 450 passengers at a time.

The Great Central Railway (originally called the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway) became a very popular way for emigrants to journey from mainland Europe through the UK and on to their final destination in North America. The GCR ran ships to Grimsby on the East Coast from some of the most important ports in Northern Europe, including Hamburg and Antwerp, Riga and Libau. From the Grimsby port, GCR trains would take passengers to Manchester and then on to Liverpool, from which most ships sailed to the United States and Canada.

The White Hart, Alfred Gelder Street, Kingston... — The White Hart, Alfred Gelder Street, Kingston Upon Hull (Photo credit: D H Wright)

Since the Railway operated both the ships and the trains, they were able to offer combined tickets in a packet price. Emigrants from Hamburg, for example, could visit one ticket agent and buy their ticket for their short sea crossing and their train ride across the UK to Liverpool.

Quite a large number of emigrants chose this route on the GCR on their way to North America. In fact, the only comparable competition to this line was a similar package offered through the port in Hull, where emigrants – Scandinavians in particular – traveled via the Paragon Railway Station.

A huge number of Jewish immigrants came at this time from modern day Lithuania, and between 30,000 and 70,000 Russian and Polish emigrants also flowed through the Humber ports. The majority of these (as high as 63 percent) made their journey via the Grimsby steamers and trains of the Great Central Railway.

In all, Grimsby saw over 100,000 emigrants flow through its port and along its railway. When the exodus from Europe was at its pinnacle, as many as 5,000 emigrants a year flowed through the British borders, swelling the population of Grimsby from a mere 8,860 in 1851 to 40,000 by 1880.

Some of the immigrants did settle in Northern England – most of them concentrating along the travel route in Grimsby, Hull, Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool. However, the majority of the European emigrants held tickets through to Canada or the United States and carried on with their journeys to North America after a brief period of weeks or months in England.

The Lascars of London and Liverpool

November 5, 2012

Alec Tritton

Immigration No Comments

As the British maritime trade expanded throughout the 19^th and 20^th centuries, ships began to look further afield for seasoned sailors. Indian seamen – or “Lascars” – had been serving on European ships since Vasco da Gama hired an Indian pilot in the late 15^th century, so naturally, the British shipping lines turned to this ready force. Throughout the 1870s, a huge number of Lascars were contracted into service for the United Kingdom, as the British East India Company recruited seamen from Yemen, Assam, Bengal, and Gujarat.

The Lascars played a valuable role throughout this period, and manned many British ships through times of war and times of peace. Their skillful ship handling ensured safe passage of merchandise as it was shipped from the Orient to London and other British ports.

Despite their skill and invaluable contribution to the commerce of the day, the Lascars were unfortunately treated very unfairly. They served on the British ships under “lascar agreements”, which gave ship owners an undue power over the Indian sailors.

Lascars were paid a pittance, making a mere 5% of the white sailors’ wages, while being expected to work at far longer hours. They were given food in smaller portions and of inferior quality. They were often quartered in the most cramped and dingy areas of the ship with the poorest ventilation.

The Lascars lived under conditions not unlike slavery, as ship owners could retain their services for up to three years at a time, transferring them from one ship to the next on a whim. They sometimes served as deck crewmen, though more often they worked as stokers below decks, as the task was deemed to be below the dignity of a white man.

Not surprisingly, there were many desertions among the lascar ranks. Others were forced to wait in England for long periods before they could find work on a ship returning to India. When the Navigation Acts were passed, many Indian sailors arriving in London could not even be reemployed for return journeys, and thus, they were simply abandoned.

Lascar and unknown ship (Photo credit: ballasttrust)

The impoverished and ill-prepared Lascars would be left to fend for themselves, wandering the streets of London, Liverpool and other ports, often forced to beg in order to survive. Many took up low-paying, menial jobs sweeping streets or peddling. Initially, many would sleep out on the streets or in sheds on the docks.

Eventually, the ports at London, Liverpool, Southampton, Cardiff, Manchester, and Glasgow began to provide temporary housing for the Lascars; though these barrack homes were often filthy and pest-ridden. By the 1930s, conditions had improved somewhat, and Lascars were able to find lodging and eventually employment through The Stranger’s Home or other similar Indian lodging houses in East London.

A substantial community of Indian sailors grew up in East London, Liverpool, and other seaport towns, and by World War I, there were 51,616 Lascars settled across Britain. As the Indian sailors integrated into the community, many of their customs and festivals became part of the British social scene. A Parsi chapel and cemetery were established, and eventually a mosque.

Many of the Lascars took British wives, and thus further integrated into the British culture and community. In fact, at one point, the Lascar seamen were almost exclusively marrying white women as there were very few Indian women in England at the time. While some expressed disgust over this interracial marriage, there were no legal restrictions against the mixed marriages. This resulted in a strong interracial community being established in Britain’s major port cities.

Immigrants Made Good – Abraham Gottheimer

October 18, 2012

Alec Tritton

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Few will recognize the name Abraham Gottheimer; but perhaps the name Baron Albert Grant will be more familiar. He would become one of the country’s richest men through his wily (and often dodgy) business dealings, but his beginnings were humble and rather inauspicious.

Abraham Gottheimer was born in December of 1831, to desperately poor parents living in Dublin’s Jewish Quarter. His mother Julia was British, and his father Bernard was a refugee from Prussian Poland. Bernard Gottheimer had moved to Dublin in the 1820s and worked the streets as a peddler. The little family was in such dire straits financially that members of their local synagogue had to provide them with blankets when little Abraham was born.

Little is known of Abraham Gottheimer’s younger years, though he boasted of an education in London and Paris. He was extremely charming and uncannily money-smart – traits that he developed early on. In 1856, he took on the name Albert Grant, shortly before marrying Emily Isabella Robinson.

He soon began to make his mark on the economic scene, working as a company promoter. Using his signature charm, he convinced investors to back companies. Rather than aiming for savvy businessmen, Grant approached widows, clergymen and other small targets that easily fell for his sales pitches. By working this way, he rapidly amassed an impressive fortune.

He was far ahead of his time where marketing and direct sales were concerned, and he truly knew how to capitalize on the average man’s impulse for speculative greed. He made millions for himself and his investors – but he lost an equal amount on a regular basis. Anyone who stayed with a Grant float for too long was bound to lose a fortune.

He put enormous stock in his public image and worked hard to maintain it. He bought and published his own newspaper, and successfully earned a seat in Parliament in 1865. He engaged in philanthropy, but even this was to his own ends, as his patronage was targeted toward the art galleries and projects that would earn him recognition and gratitude from the right crowds – particularly, the government. By patronizing a slum clearance in Milan, he earned a Baronetcy from King Victor Emmanuel. He did the same in Portugal and quickly began using his new titles.

The Baron’s fortunes continued to skyrocket, and by 1867, his wealth was estimated at over half a million sterling. Any time investors began to lose money, Grant would whip out another extravagant display to distract them. In 1874, the Baron bought and developed a neglected piece of land in Central London which had beome a reknowned rubbish dump. It was called Leicester Field, he tidied it up, added a bust of William Shakespeare and gifted the city. We know it today as Leicester Square.

It wasn’t long though before Grant’s day of reckoning came. In 1874, the day after Leicester Square opened, the Baron was charged with bribery and kicked out of Parliament. He held his head above water for a time, but when the Emma Silver Mines Scandal broke in 1879, the Baron declared bankruptcy. He spent the rest of his life in seclusion, in and out of bankruptcy courts and hounded by allegations of fraud and misrepresentation.

Grant spent his last years in relative poverty. He died of heart failure at Aldwick Place, Pagham, near Bognor, in Sussex in August 1899 aged 67

Shakespeare statue returned to Leicester Square

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