GAVE HIS ALL TO NAVY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 839, 6 December 1929, Page 11

GAVE HIS ALL TO NAVY

MR. G. S. READE DIES IN AUCKLAND

i. 1,000,000 GIFT

Known throughout the world last year when he gave his ancestral home in England and a large amount of money for a naval school for the nation, Mr. Gifford Sherman Reade died in his Auckland home last evening. He was 85 years of age. The sum eventually available l'or the school will be considerably in excess of £ 1,000,000. Mr. Reade’s presentation to the Empire cost him. all but a small income sufficient for his needs in his last days. “I have now given my all to the Navy,” was Mr. Reade s announcement. » Always reserved and unassuming, Mr. Reade's gift brought public attention to him swiftly. llis ancestral home was Holbrook House, Ipswich, in Suffolk, England. As the proprietor of several tea estates in Assam. India. All. Read© amassed a fortune. He had other Interests, including coal j oncer ns. in Assam, but he admitted, at the time of his gift, that he had a tremendous struggle to establish himself financially. There were losses at the begin“l BOUGHT EXPERIENCE’ *T had to buy experience,” was how Mr. Reade explained his early interests. Concentration and dependence on his business instincts eventually brought prosperity. After his retirement in 1902. Mr. Reade travelled for several years. Deep-sea Ashing actually turned his attention to New Zealand and he arrived with Mrs. Reade in 1914. The disruption of the world by the Great War and the absence of family ties caused him tg make Auckland his permanent place of residence. Mr. Reade’s reserve had proof in war time. He made substantial gifba to the Allied cause without advertisement. Wartime over. Mr. Reade considered seriously the presentation of his estate at Holbrook to the Admiralty to allow the transfer of the Queen’s Hall. Greenwich, naval training school to a more suitable area. Many negotiations were needed. In January, 1925, the principal of the college arrived in Auckland with power to act on behalf of the Admiralty in completing the transactions. Full plans for the new school were arranged In his unencumbered gift of the estate, followed by a large sum of money, Mr. Reade gave the Admiralty cause to proceed with building a £1,000,000 college. The endowment funds are from heavy interest-bearing Indian securities. They will be .applied as a national trust fund, and will accumulate for a period of years. Should the funds accumulate for Ihe suggested 21 years, the amount available will exceed £1,000,000. In October last, the Duke of York laid the foundation-stone at the college. He sent a cablegram concerning the event to Mr. Reade. When Mrs. Reade died this year, on July 6, officers of the Navy attended the funeral.