A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2702, 1 March 1924, Page 3

A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE.

MAN OF SIMPLE TASTES,

RODE TO HOUNDS AT 88. London, 27th February. The will of Joseph Trueman Mills of Leicestershire, has occasioned great surprise. He was lord of the manor at Leighton Buzzard, and had estates in Norfolk and Bedford and many interests in London. He left over £4,000,000. He inherited £l,000,000 from his father, a silk manufacturer, but how he quadrupled the fortune is known only to a few. The “Daily Express” says that he lived like a Spartan, rising at 7 o’clock and was never idle for a , moment until his bedtime, at 10 o’clock. He employed no secretary, but attended to his voluminous correspondence himself. He had the simplest of tastes, and banned telephones, typewriters, motor cars and aeroplanes. He never took a taxicab on the occasion of his visits to the city, if he could find a tram car or an omnibus. The villagers regarding him as a kindly hunting squire. They were aware that he was wealthy, but never suspected that he was one of the richest men in England. Mr Mills had ridden to hounds for 70 years. A month before he died at the age of 88, he rode 12 miles in bitter cold and then galloped across country a dozen more and rode 14 miles home. He was seven hours in the saddle. It was his last achievement for he caught a chill and died. A cheque for £1,200,000 was paid to Somerset House yesterday for estate duty. Other sums are to follow.