Henry Strakosch
 Henry Strakosch    (businessman, banker) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 9 May 1871 |
| Died | 30 October 1943 (Age 72) |
| Nationality | British (Born: Austria-Hungarian) |
| Religion | Judaism |
| Interests | Winston Churchill |
Banker who paid Winston Churchill's large debts "without asking anything in return". Chair of The Economist 1929-1943
| |
Sir Henry Strakosch was a businessman and banker. Born in Austria of Jewish heritage, he took British citizenship in 1907.
Background
His parents were the merchant Edward Strakosch and his wife Mathilde, (née Winters). He was born at Hohenau, Austria, and educated at the Wasa Gymnasium in Vienna and privately in England.[1]
British citizenship
He entered banking in the City of London in 1891,[2] then began working for the Anglo-Austrian Bank of South Africa in the 1895. Strakosch became a naturalized British citizen in 1907.
He was a financial adviser to the South African government, and was the author of the 1920 South African Currency and Banking Act. He was chairman of the South African goldminers, Union Corporation from 1924. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Indian Currency and Finance during 1925 and 1926. He later served on the Council of India between 1930 and 1937, served as a delegate for India at the Imperial Economic Conference in 1932, and acted as adviser to the Secretary of State for India between 1937 and 1942.
Strakosch was knighted in 1921, then created a KBE in 1924, and promoted GBE in 1927.[3] He was awarded an honorary degree of LLD at Manchester University in 1938.[4]
He was chairman of The Economist between 1929 and 1943.
Donor to Churchill
In 1938, Strakosch settled Winston Churchill's private debts[5], and again in June 1940[6]. Bernard Baruch, a friend of Churchill's, had given Churchill stock recommendations that failed. Churchill had become insolvent in the spring of 1938 as a result of this stock speculation. The price of his American shares had fallen rapidly because of the 1938 recession. Churchill was unable to pay the bank back the money he had borrowed. Then Henry Strakosch came on the scene, paid off the debt and took over the fallen shares in return[7]. Churchill's loss of £12,000 in 1938 is equivalent to losing about a million dollars in 2020. For this he received a thank-you note from Churchill: "This is only to tell you that as Hitler said to Mussolini, on a recent and less worthy occasion, ‘I shall never forget this inestimable service." [5]
On June 18, 1940, Strakosch wrote a check for 5,000 pounds ($400,000 in 2020) to Churchill to cover his private debts. The generous donor didn’t ask for anything in return and kept it a secret. To cover his tracks, Strakosch made out the check to one of Churchill’s close advisers, who in turn signed it over to Churchill. [5]
Strakosch also bequeathed Churchill £20,000 in his will.[8]
Strakosch was unmarried until 1941 when he married Mabel Elizabeth Vincent, daughter of John Curnow Millett of Pempol, Cornwall, and widow of Joseph Temperley, [2] a shipowner.[4]
He died at his home, after an unsuccessful operation, at Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, in 1943 aged seventy-two.[4]
References
- ↑ Wickham Legg and Williams, L.G. and E.T. (editors). Dictionary of National Biography, 1941-1950. Oxford University Press. p. 846.
- ↑ a b Who Was Who, 1941-1950. A and C Black. 1952. p. 1115.
- ↑ Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes, 1942. Kelly's. p. 1715.
- ↑ a b c Dictionary of National Biography, 1941-50. p. 847.
- ↑ a b c Aderet, Ofer (19 September 2016). "Blood, Sweat and Booze: Churchill's Debts and the Moguls Who Saved Him". Haaretz. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
- ↑ Larson, Erik, 1954-. The splendid and the vile : a saga of Churchill, family, and defiance during the Blitz (First ed.). New York. p. 100.
- ↑ Gilbert, Martin (1981). Winston Churchill - The Wilderness Years. Macmillan. p. 222.
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/1944/02/06/archives/20000-to-churchill-by-strakosch-will.html
