WEALTHY MISER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 January 1939, Page 7

WEALTHY MISER

i ESTATE OF £156,000 LEFT. LIVED ON 25s A WEEK. LONDON, December 10. More than once called "the meanest man in England," an 86 years old Bristol bachelor who, on the day before he died said he could not afford a taxi, was found to have left £156,000. He bequeathed most of it to the Exchequer for reduction of the National Debt After estate duty has been paid and small bequests met, the Exchequer wil] received more than £lOO,OOO. Albert John Grave lived in oneroom lodging in a working-class district of Bristol. He smoked a clay pipe —briars, he said, were too dear —and carefully rationed himself to half an ounce of tobacco a week. His mid-day dinner at his lodgings cost him a shilling. He thought that too expensive, and frequently walked to a restaurant where he could buy a cheaper meal. As he was going to the restaurant two months ago he fell. He was taken to hospital, where a doctor ordered him home to bed. Next day he waf worse. He would not call a doctor, but his landlady persuaded him to go back to hospital. The doctor, after an examination, allowed him to return home. “1 advise you to take a taxi,” he said. Mi Grave replied:—"Taxi! Tut. tut. extravagance. I can’t afford a taxi. I will walk.”

Next day "poor old Mr Grave" waf found dead in bed. His will directed his executors to pay four legacies of £56 each and to divide £5OOO among charities. The rest went to the State. "Mr Grave was 86 years old," said his landlady. Mrs Nicholls, this week, "and hitwhiskers hung down over his chest. We all thought he was too poor to shave. He scarcely ever let me light a fire in his room."