| Show s f ps ifi fu Vi 3t Ji - n J ® t £ 1 jr- “ £" Vt £1’ f " s £& g" T ntf M' Mi TUB BAXT ESKTJ TRIBUNE SUNDAY MORNING SEPTEMBER 1? TWO Bfccte ’ S4S-- I? ' He once owned a Milwaukee brewery his ships touch at U S ports T J He was created a baronet in 1905 Ht become a great friend of the late Lord Nortb-clifAs a result he became a heavy holder of stock in the Daily Mail and joined with Londoa Northcliffe in his purchase of Times When that famous paper was sold to Major J J Astor Ellerman also disposed of his shares After the death of Lord Northcliffe ha also sold his Daily Mail shares at a big profit and thus got out of the daily newspaper game entirely Then he made a new plunge He hecams practically the undisputed master of the British He bought the illustrated news and society magazines Illustrated Londoa the the Taller Sketch the Sphere News Eve and the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News As he did not pretend to understand the magazine But about three game he kept the staffs practically intact flock of whole the sold he magazmea to tha years ago tnveresk Paper Co Various figures have been quoted but all agree that Sir John closed out at a handsome profit Then this restless man went off on a new tack He sudLondenly became one of the greatest ground landlorda in don He bought the Cadogan and Hana estate a in the Chelsea district of London for a very large figure In 1925 a company of which he is one of the main owners psid 15 million dollars for 40 acres of choice real estate in 5reat Portland street In August 1929 after the death of Lord Iveagh he bought from the heirs 82 acre in the South Kensington district of London for five million do500 residences shops llars This purchase alone involved warehouses and bars Sir John has two children a son John Reeves Ellerage man who is heir to his title and who become Winifred Ellerman year and a daughter who was Miss She is believed to be an adopted daughter but Sir John has neither affirmed nor denied this A few years ago she went to America on a trip and met Robert L McAlmon who had been a famous Michigan Univeriity football ships were the things of the future He launched die company on a big shipbuilding program and pledged not only the company's credit with shipbuilders but stood back of the program by pledging hundreds of thousands of his own growing fortune For several years there was a boom in the shipping business and things prospered Then came a lean time in the entire shipping world and stocks fell in market price Ellerman was so confident of the future of the line that he bought practically every share of common stock that was ottered Eventually he thus became owner of the great majority of the common stock Once twitted O'Hagan him about it He become a wizard in the shipping he was of great service to th British government both in the Boer War and in the World War as an adviser on ship-- same ping the Morgans he has traded and his daughter married and divorced an American college football star and poet with H AVING replied: ‘You devote a good deal of your time and money to a beautiful collection of ancient coins Well I collect Ley-lan- d shares" now the chief owner of die Leyland Lines determined to male it rank on the ocean with the great transatlantic companies and the Royal Mail and Peninsular and Oriental He bought the West Indian and Pacific Line and was in the market for the Atlantic Transport Steamship Company but this fell through But like so much that happened to tins man this proved a lucky failure For a year later steamship interests backed by J P Morgan & Co bought the Leyland Lines and Ellerman cleaned up five million dollars w With these profits and the balance of his fortune in hand he now definitely turned his entire attention for the time being to shipping He founded the Ellerman Lines with the result that today he is one of the greatest ship owners the world has known since the day when Noah owned the ark It is estimated that he controls over two million tons of ships The Ellerman Lines own and operate a great many individual shipping companies There is the Ellerman Line — BEING fe 1 player and poet A fortnight after she met the fascinating young American Mrs McAlmon is not interested in they were married business like her father but has decided literary talents When only 19 she published a book of poemi “Region of Lutany” and under a nom de plume has published a book called "Development” Young John EJIerman also so far has displayed more interest in literature than in Sir John celebrated business New Year’s Day last year by ing his daughter a gift of C" nefon real estate worth It fx S3 A £ x ft' j - r ( 3 I ri i By MILTON the name of Sir John Reeves EllerEnglish man to the average business man and he will probably reply: "Oh yes I've heard of him but never have seen him Has pots of money — ships well-inform- and things” And that is about all the information you will get For this man who has the King Midas touch which seems to turn everything he handles to gold ingots has one great pasion in life outside of Hg business — a bitter eternal hatred of publicity To avoid it be shuns clubs He is not a diner out He even drives home every day to eat lunch in his own dining room He is never interviewed He never gives out statements Photographs of him are as scarce as hen’s teeth Once a friend of mine who runs a big news photo agency in London conducted a lot of diplomatic maneuvers in the endeavor to get a snapshot of him After weeks of labor he finally got the magic message: “Sir John will be photographed by one of your men The camera man must be at tuen a place at such an hour — sharp to the dot He must not say a word to Sir John He must simply have his camera ready snap the picture and go about his business" The photographer was or hand at the appointed hour but alas I for his hopes one of Sir John's secretaries came out and said he was sorry but his chief was not feeling well apd did not choose to be photographed So that was that It’s not that he is homely Sir John is a tall sturdily-bui- lt man of 68 with a full beard in which the gray is now predominant He is often said by those who have seen him to look like the late King Edward VII But as a matter Ferdinand of Bulof fact he looks more like the garia His antipathy to photographs is that the newspapers of London would publish them every time he pulled one of his gigantic deals and then people would know who he was and point him out to their friends As it is now Sir John can do the Haroun 1 Raschid tiling and walk about ’The City" — London's Wall Street — without more than a score of people knowing that they are watching the richest man in the British empire He is estimated to be worth at least 200 million dollars "My business is my business and not the newspapers “ V rll it in I S 50 one Johann Herman Ellerman migrated Germany to Hull in noithern Eng land settled down in bminess married an Englishwoman Mim Anne Elizabeth Reeves and prospered as a BACK merchant Ede became a British sublet and ifter a while he had a son He named the boy John after himself and xyx super-conscio- Reeves after the boy’s - T v k and then ood education had him trained for the busiaccountant ness of chartered "I he storv goes that when the boy reached his majority his father gave him $10000Q and told him he need expect nothing further from him Young John started out on his work in Birmingham and then came to London to labor for a firm of chartered accountants He was a good bookkeeper and thought that after a while he ought to be given a partnership At be did not get it he formed a firm of his own and soon had same of the biggest business concerns in London as his clients An expert chartered accountant gets to know what is going on and also knows what are good investments John Reeves Lllerman took part of his $100000 and X a 3 f s richest man sim- plicity Unlike many rich men who are poor compared to him he does not own a flock of town and country houses devoted to his own personal use He once owned Slams Castle in Aberdeenshire Scotland surrounded by 7200 acres of park and hunting lands but he disposed of this His only home is in South Audley street London In this house he likes to have paintings around him but he purchases moderns Lie once said : "I believe in encouraging men and women who are painting now The Corots Van Dycks and Rembrandts can take care ‘ LIT the great turning point in his career came a few years later when Frederick Dvland founder and chief owner of the Lvland Steamship Lanes died O'Elagan in- Whether Sir John or even his daughter finally came to regard McAlmon’s poetic productions with "frozen contempt and indifferences” is not known But the romance did not last and in 1927 the young couple were divorced in Pans after a comparatively brief try at married life ENGLAND'S of extreme doubled it Along about 1887 tbe Hull breweries were for sale and Ellerman as an accountant helped engineer their sale to f I Osborne O’Hagan That incident set Lllerman to thinking about breweries And directly with some other Englishmen he was a heavy investor in a great Milwaukee brewery Ellerman was made chairman of the board They sold out lo a syndicate of Americans at a handsome price For a lime after that EJIerman interested himself in Lnglish breweries and made more money and 6 t He 8ve Hm frozen contempt differences" X ’Vb mother- the career "Kabalistic impalabihties form a claritv Cutside of lugubrious loyalties to learning But come We will walk erect Of our BRONNEIt ENTION business” is the way he once put jy business d JtA i L Sir John Reeves Ellerman lo the average Englishman just But ' a man who has “ pots of money ships and things" he is probably the richest man in England a muslery man who likes a good dinner a good with many irons in many fires drink and a good cigar (Portrait sketch by Art Krenz) from was a far cry of Sir John to the poetry of the man who had married his daughter Some idea of Sir John’s career may be had from the foregoing sketch Some idea of be had poetry may from this sample: hard-heade- the only daughter of Sir John believed adopted Annie Winifred EIlerman She mained a pgnntless Greenthough Sir John gives out no such information author of pointless poetry and Vitiating wich 1 illage poet Robert Mcsllmon But they were divorced after a European honeymoon verse bought the lines'and invited the public to subscribe for its stock He also formed a syndicate which undertook to buy all that the public did not take In this syndicate were O’Hagan Ellerman and Sir Christopher Furness later to be Lavrd Furness a shipping king who martied Miss Thelma as such — with 21 ships plving between Great Britain and Morgan of New York When the business of tile lines was live Mediterranean ports: Lllerman’ Wilson Lne with 43 Furness became chairman and Lllerman a reconstructed Porto India Scandinavia from Britain Great ships going director As such he took particular interest in the Liverllson’s the Mediterranean ports and to Russia tugal pool offices where the main business was done and Northeast Railway Shipping Co with six ships going Furness and Ellerman were both strong and both stubfrom Hull England to Antwerp Dunkirk and Hamburg born men and it was not long before they were at cross the City Line with 25 ships from Glasgow and Lverpool n purposes Eurnevs resigned and Ellerman became chairman to India the 1 lull Lne with 57 ships from Lverpool O’Elagan has since confessed that he saw this change with and Glasgow to I gvpt Red iea ports India Last a great deal of searching of heart Furness had brert brought Africa Lev Ion and Burmah the Hapavanni Lne with six up in the shipping business It was all new to EIlerman lnp from England to Algiers Malta Egypt and I urkey But it must have been in hn blood his ancestors having the ke!iott and Laurance Lne with 31 ships from Eniz-lan- d come from the great shipping town of Hamburg However to Mediterranean ports and finally the Ellerman & that may be he took to his new line like a duck to water Eiurknall Steamship Co with 24 ships from England to He threw all hn enormous energy into the work and soon Australia from Australia to South Africa from India to America from England to virtually all the world agreed with the firm’s Lverpool managers that large cargo (Copyright 18S By EvryWlt Magasme— Printed la U A) Lo-dn- of themselves" There is no played so large man a who part life in has the constructive business of England whose personality is so elusive even mysterious He does not care a curse about high society He is not among tho-- a mentioned as attending first nights at the opera or theater or horse show Unlike other swells he does not own a racing stable He does not give great parties He is not the subject of amusing anecdotes He is jut Sir John Reeves Ellerman attending to his own business Even when he does charitable deeds he tries to do them as it were bv stealth During the World War he supported a great hospital for wounded and convalescent officers It spoiled his dav when the newspapers learned about it He s probably one of the most steadily busy men in Iiindor In addition to his vast shipping and real estate interests he is chairman of four big investment concerns and also of Hoare & Co an old Conservative banking firm It was once aid of him that out'ide of his business hit home and his family he had no interests whatever except a good dinner a good drink and good cigar i |
