DIAMOND KING’S FORTUNE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 434, 10 September 1908, Page 4

DIAMOND KING’S FORTUNE.

Turf Barred to Successor Under Pain of Forfeiture.

Sir Frederic Philipson - Stow, Bart, the joint founder with the late Mr Cecil Rhodes of the De Beers Mining Company, took the surest means of preventing the fortune he had made out of diamonds being squandered on the turf by his successor. In his will which has just been proved, Sir Frederic provides that the successor to his settled estates shall not within 21 years of the testator’s death keep racehorses or a racing establishment or run racehorses either in his own or other names (with the exception of running a horse or horses in regimental races), “and, failing the observance of this condition, such successor’s interest under his will shall cease, and he shall receive only an annuity of £SOO for life or until he shall assign charge thereof.’’

The probate records show that, as a rule, big fortunes and longevity go together. The exception to the rule is provided by the De Beers magnates, as the following list shows ;-r-

Age Fortune at death £ Mr Alfred Beit ... 53 3,000,000 Mr Woolf Joel 34 1,226.659 Mr Barney Barnato 44 960,119 Mr Cecil Rhodes... 46 461,409 Sir Philipson-Stow 58 35°>34° Indeed the only one of the De Beers magnates to attain any considerable age was Mr Thomas Shiels, who died in 1904 at the age of 70, leaving a fortune of The late Sir Frederic PhilipsouStow, who died in May last, was a solicitor, of Fenhurst, Sussex, and his will, disposing of his fortune of is dated March, 1898. In it he states that he made no bequests for public uses, as he had given considerable sums during his lifetime, including about ,£IO,OOO to the University of South Africa, Capetown. He was the sou of the late Mr Frederic Stow, of Orange River Colony, the name of Philipson having been assumed by Royal license in 1891.