THE BEECHAM BANKRUPTCY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 46, 18 November 1920, Page 5

THE BEECHAM BANKRUPTCY

The ventilation of the financial affaire of Sir Thomas Beecham in the Bankruptcy Court, under a receiving order granted to. a creditor, showed' how a rich man may be forced into this Court .through inability to convert his. assets into cash, says <m\ exchange. '

Sir. Thomas Beecham is tho elder son of the la to Sir Joseph Beocham, who at his- death in 1916 left his. large and prosperous business of pill making to his two sons and. four- daughters. Sir Thomas is not a business man, but a musician, and lifts' won fame on the Continent, as well as in- England, as a conductor of opera. He has spent many thousands, during- the past 10 years in an endeavour to popularise opera in England, an- ambition in which his father, who was passionately fond of music, assisted him. financially.. It. is to the losses incurred in his musical enterprises rnnco his father's death that tho son owod his appearance in the-Bankruptcy Court. He borrowed money im order to finance the6e. enterprises, as was. unablo, through complications arising out' of his father's death, to obtain his shure- of tho profits of the pill-making business. At the: time: of his death Sir Joseph Bsocliam had. entered into negotiations for the purchase of the Duke, of Bedford'# Covent Gardens Estate for X 2,000,000,. and had paid a deposit of .£250,000. His indention was. to resell this' largo slico of London, comprisod in the estate at a profit, but the outbreak: of war interfered with this: plan, and his own death in 1916 resulted in the, introduction of leal complications into- tho transaction. Sir Thomas Beecham estimates that ho ought to have an income of <£100,000 a year from his father's business, but as the result of complications in the administration. of thO' ( estate,, duo in. part to. tho exensivo business: deals: in>> which his fathor was engaged when ho died, he has otitainod very little of the money ("ue to him. T3ut as his assets, show that lie. is really n. wealthy man,, his solicitors had little difficulty in arranging for the, payment, of. all tho creditors TS. raft. '