ROMANCE OF FORTUNE.
FOUNDING OF CHICAGO. LONDON, May 17. Believed to have' lent more money to the State during the last war' than any other person, Sir George Alexder Cooper has died, aged 84, at liis Winchester home, Hursley Park. His total purchases of War Loan amounted to £2,635,000. Sir George was practising as a solicitor in Elgin, when, more than 40 years ago, he and his wife inherited over £4,500,000 from her cousin, an American millionaire known as “Chicago Smith.’’ Smith emigrated from Scotland to the United States and acquired large holdings of land on the site where Chicago was afterward built. In his declining years he lived in a single room at the Reform Club in London, and died worth over £9,000.000. This fortune was discussed in the House of Commons, when Smith was called “a miser.’’ Sir Michael HicksBeach, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, replied: “I know nothing of that, hut as Chancellor of the Exchequer, interested in the yield of the death duties, I do say lie died like a gentleman.” “Chicago Smith’s” other' chief heir was Lady Cooper’s brother, Mr, J. H. Smith, who was nicknamed “Silent Smith.” He'died a few years later while on his honeymoon in Japan, and part ot his fortune was left to Lady Cooper. Sir George and Lady Cooper celebrated their golden wedding in 1937. The heir .to the baronetcy, which was conferred on Sir George in 1905, is his son, Captain George James Robertson Cooper. He married the Hon. Isolde Borthwick, daughter of the 17th Lord Borthwick. -
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MS19400607.2.9
Bibliographic details
Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 161, 7 June 1940, Page 2
Word Count
259ROMANCE OF FORTUNE. Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 161, 7 June 1940, Page 2
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Manawatu Standard. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in