Howard Samuel (1914–1961) was a prominent British property developer and influential Labour publisher. Born on February 2, 1914, in Hampstead, London, he was the son of Henry Samuel Samuel and Grace Samuel (née Jacobs), a prominent jeweler. He was also a cousin of the well-known property developer Harold Samuel, Baron Samuel of Wych Cross.
Samuel received his education at St. Paul’s School, where he developed a reputation as a precocious collector of rare books. After his education, he became a surveyor. Following his service in the Second World War, he co-founded an estate agency with his brother, Basil Samuel, in 1934, focusing on acquiring properties in the West End. In 1959, the holding company he formed, Great Portland Estates Ltd. (now known as GPE), was founded to invest in properties originally developed by the Dukes of Portland and became a nationally recognized property business. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange later that year, with its initial portfolio consisting of 41 properties valued at £5.5 million.
Despite his immense wealth, Howard Samuel was a fervent supporter of the Labour Party. He was actively involved in financing the left-wing periodicals Tribune and the New Statesman, and he served on the board of directors for Tribune. He maintained a close friendship with the radical Labour leader Aneurin Bevan, a key figure in post-World War II British politics and the architect of the National Health Service.
Howard Samuel died on May 6, 1961, in Glyfada, Greece, at the age of 47. His death was widely reported as being due to a heart attack, although some sources suggest he drowned. Or, perhaps he had a heart attack and then drowned? At the time of his death, he left a substantial fortune of £3.8 million, making him one of the wealthiest individuals in Britain at that time. His son, Nigel Howard Samuel (born March 11, 1946), appears to have inherited a significant portion of his father’s fortune. Howard also had a daughter named Nicola Jane Samuel (born June 22, 1951).
Below are some newspaper articles that reference Howard Samuel.
The Jewish Chronicle 18 May 1934
BASIL AND HOWARD SAMUEL
Mr. Basil Samuel, Associate of the Auctioneers Institute, and Mr. Howard Samuel, both of whom have wide experience with well-known London firms are setting up in business on their own account; having taken some-excellent ground floor shop premises at 304 Regent Street, Oxford Circus, W.I, nearly opposite the Polytechnic. The style of the firm will be Messrs. Basil and Howard Samuel, auctioneers, surveyors, estate agents, etc.
South Western Star – Friday 18 January 1946
WANTED
ESTATE Agents require: (a) Shorthand-Typist preferably with experience of an office dealing with property, but this is not essential; (b) Junior Shorthand Typist; (c) Telephone operator. — Apply Basil and Howard Samuel, 97 Mortimer-street. W.I. Tel.: Langham 1271/2/3
Westminster & Pimlico News – Friday 06 June 1947
ASHLEY GDNS. FLATS
No “Under-the-Counter Lettings,” Agents Declare
A RUMOUR THAT DE REQUISITIONED FLATS AT ASHLEY GARDENS, WESTMINSTER. WERE BEING LET AT HIGH RENTS WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE COUNCIL AND WITHOUT ANY REGARD TO THE PEOPLE ON THE COUNCIL’S HOUSING LIST HAS BEEN STRENUOUSLY DENIED BY THE AGENTS, MESSRS. BASIL AND HOWARD SAMUEL of MORTIMER STREET, W.I.
The rumour came by way of telephone from several sources to the -W.L.P. and apparently were originated by a board placed outside the flats advertising them. A member of the firm of agents told our reporter: “It is nonsense to suggest that we have not consulted the Council before attempting to let these flats. We had to obtain permits to get certain repairs carried out and we have asked the council to let us have the names of suitable people on their waiting list so that we can put them into the flats at we what consider are economic rents.
“Here is a block of 33 flats that have been occupied by R.A.F. personnel. Thirteen of these flats are nearly ready and they will be let at the maximum of £550 a year, and the minimum of £300 a year. The flats at £550 year have eight rooms. 2 bath-rooms, 3 reception rooms and other conveniences, while the others have 3 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms and bath-rooms.”
Daily News (London) – Thursday 15 May 1952
JANE LANE – THE WIFE OF HOWARD SAMUEL
Manchester Evening News – Monday 29 December 1952
A BACKER FOR “TRIBUNE”
The left-wing Labour weekly has a new director. He is Mr Howard Samuel, a wealthy property owner and partner in a West End firm of estate agents. This is just one of many moves behind the scenes recently. Personal approaches have been made to possible backers and one cocktail party was undisguised to discuss raising funds There are stated in Fleet-street to be other new backers for “Tribune” besides Mr Samuel, the name of an impresario for one is coupled with new capital while a textile man is also very interested” MP directors. Now 40 Mr Samuel joins two MPs on the board Miss Jennie Lee and Mr Michael Foot. Miss Lee is the wife of Mr Aneurin Bevan who was editor of “Tribune” till he joined the Government in 1945. Mr. Samuel has been a member of the Socialist party since before the war. He and his wife artist Jane Lane have a country house in the Chilterns near Princes Risborough. There Mr and Mrs Bevan are frequent week-end guests. What are Tribune’s plans now there is more cash? Michael Foot is believed to have been a problem. He was a journalist before becoming an MP and is an able political writer but he stands to the Left of Labour policies strongly pushing Mr Bevan and his group
The argument
It has been argued to Mr Foot that if “Tribune” is to get advertising and expand it must move Right a little and become less stilted and more popular and go all out for circulation In any case the Bevanites may now have a formidable mouthpiece and possibly a rival to Mr Attlee and his “Daily Herald” But do not expect Tribune to become a daily That is dream out of their reach at moment And the Daily Worker” will ruefully tell anybody what it costs to publish Monday to Saturday these days all for the sake of political theories which never really win big circulations
The Manchester Guardian 30 December 1952
HOWARD SAMUEL
The new director of “Tribune,” Mr Howard Samuel, is a man of property, a surveyor; an ” undistinguished ” member of the· Labour party (the adjective is his own), and an old friend of the Bevans. He joined the party in 1937, when he was 22, and the most that he has ever done since, in his own estimation, was unsuccessfully to seek election as a Labour, councillor in Marylebone. He has been a surveyor all his life except during the war when he served in the army, and has known the Bevans well since 1942. He got engaged to his wife, who paints as Miss Jane Lane, at the Bevans’ house, and the Bevans, Aneurin and Jennie, are godparents to the Samuels’ two children.
Joining the board of “Tribune” will be Mr Samuel’s first experience of journalism and he is disinclined as yet to discuss the matter or to consider it important. A much more exciting event, so far as the Samuels are concerned, is Mrs Samuel’s one-woman show, which opens at the Galleries Barreiro, Paris; on February 4.
Daily Mirror – Tuesday 08 December 1953
HOWARD SAMUEL
The casualties have been terrific, and Charlie Clore has quit after a damaging haymaker from Harold (“Golden Boy ”) Samuel. He got only £100,000 for his pains. So now it seems that only Sammy is left to take on the landlord. Now I have a suggestion for Harold Samuel. It is that he should talk to his cousin Howard Samuel. He too is an immensely rich man, and he too is also in the estate business specializing in huge office blocks. Howard might have good advice for Harold, for Howard is an underdog’s man; an outside-edge Left Winger; a man who mixes with those who are pretty near the barricades of social revolution; an associate of extreme Socialists; a Bevanite—and a director of their paper Tribune. He owns shares in the Company which were transferred to him by that entertaining flail of capitalism, Mr. Michael Foot.
++ + +++++++++
It all sounds rather like a family affair. It IS a family affair. Aneurin Bevan is the god-father of Mr. Howard Samuel’s two children. Jennie Lee, Mr. Bevan’s wife, is the god-mother. Thus within the compass of one family and their near relatives we have the opportunity for one of the most intriguing political conversions of recent times. Mr. Bevan instructing Mr. Howard Samuel to tell Mr. Harold Samuel about the vices of capitalism. Mr. Foot, grasping his scythe to mow down the evils of gambling on the Stock Exchange. And Jennie Lee extolling the value of sweat on a miner’s brow in the Fifeshire coalfields as compared with the battle for the Old S. and B.
[The casualties of Charlie Clore refer to an investment he made in two hotels which did not go well – The Old Savoy and The Berkeley (Old S. and B.)]
Evening Standard 04 Dec 1953, Friday
HAROLD AND HOWARD SAMUEL
MR. HAROLD SAMUEL, whose grip on the Savoy Hotel group today became so much tighter, is not known at the Berkeley Hotel, which is the property he is really after. He wants to pull it down and replace it with offices. Samuel, 42, conducts his business from the offices of his Land Securities Investment Trust in Devonshire House, Piccadilly. To lunch at the Berkeley, he would just have to step across the street. But he never does.
Table by the window.
Instead, at lunch time, Harold Samuel often goes up Berkeley Street to Curzon Street, where he eats at the hotel run by Mr. Max Joseph. Mr. Joseph is married to the sister of Mrs. Samuel. But another member of the family is well known at the Berkeley. Mr. Howard Samuel, a cousin or Mr. Harold Samuel, lunches there nearly every day with business friends. He always has the same table in the window. Howard Samuel is also a property owner, in partnership with his brother Basil. He has a stake in his cousin’s firm, Land Securities. He is also a director of Tribune, the Bevanite review.
Cancelled booking
For many years, the three Samuels have taken parties to the Chelsea Arts Ball on New Year’s Eve. Usually Harold Samuel has booked the largest box in the Albert Hall. This year he has changed his plans. He had made a provisional booking of the box for New Year’s Eve again. Now he has cancelled it.
Huddersfield Daily Examiner – Wednesday 16 March 1955
HOWARD SAMUEL
The four-page manuscript of 1,500 words of the unfinished story “Clisson and Eugenie” entirely in the hand of Napoleon belonging to the late Mr Andre Coppet was sold at Sotheby’s yesterday after opening bid of £200 to Mr Howard Samuel a young English collector £2300. The underbidder was M Charvary, of Paris. It is suggested that it was written between 1785 and 1789. The hero of this story of love and jealousy is the young officer “Clisson” believed to be Napoleon himself, “The Times” says. Before the sale of this fragment, the auctioneer Mr Anthony Hobson announced that there were twelve other pages in the Public Library of Warsaw.
Aberdeen Evening Express – Tuesday 28 February 1956
BOOK SOLD FOR £6,800
The sum of £6800 was paid Sotheby’s in London to-day for William Blake’s illuminated “First Book of Urizen,” containing twenty eight plates on twenty-eight leaves brilliantly colour-printed by Blake at Lambeth in 1794. It was one of only seven copies, and one of the only two complete copies. Sent for sale by Major T. E. Dimsdale, it is believed to have belonged to an ancestor —the first Baron Dimsdale, who in all probability obtained the copy from Blake. The buyer was Mr Howard Samuel, the London collector and estate dealer.
Daily Herald – Friday 01 August 1958
Divorce for artist
A decree nisi with costs was granted in the Divorce Court yesterday to Mrs. Jane Willington Samuel—Miss Jane Lane, the artist —because of adultery at a London hotel by her husband, Mr. Howard Samuel, the property millionaire, who did not defend the suit. Mrs. Samuel’s address was given as The Downs, Fulking. Sussex.
01 Aug 1958, Friday
The Scotsman – Wednesday 18 March 1959
BASIL AND HOWARD SAMUEL
PROPERTY SHARES AGAIN
An even larger property-owning organisation than Lintang Investments Ltd., now makes its approach to the London stock market for a quotation. It would no doubt also have been more satisfactory from the investors’ point of view for Great Portland Estates, Ltd. to have made a direct public offer for sale. Instead, Messrs. Cazenove & Co., the London brokers, are to purchase 950,000 Ordinary shares and guarantee subscription for a further one million, all of 10s each, at a price of 14s 6d. This organisation is for Mr Basil Samuel and Mr Howard Samuel serving the same purpose as Lintang for Mr Maxwell Joseph in bringing together their properties. When the present transactions are complete the board and their families will retain control of around 70 per cent of the issued equity capital — this consists of 7.75 million shares of 10s each. At present 41 freehold and leasehold properties are owned, all but one in the City and West End of London. . – A valuation of £5.5 million is placed on the properties owned, and after adding other credits—which include 1.3 million of shares in Land Securities Investment Trust—and deducting liabilities, the net worth of the company is £5.3 million, equivalent to 13s 8d per Ordinary share. Taxable earnings for the year to end-March 1960 are expected of around £265,000 and a dividend of 5% per cent is foreshadowed for that year. Now it remains to be seen what effect this company will have in the stock markets when business begins.
Daily Herald – Wednesday 18 March 1959
MILLIONS
A Samuel is already the City’s Man of Property. That is Mr. Harold Samuel, the chairman of the £37 million Land Securities Investment Trust, which owns office blocks in London and many other towns. But today two more Samuels enter the glare of the City’s spotlight. They are brothers Howard and Basil, cousins of the great Harold. All the property companies they have been steadily building up over the years are now joined in a single enterprise, the Great Portland Estates. It comes to town with capital of £3,875,000 divided into shares of 10s. each. Almost 2 6 million shares are being sold off to make a Stock Exchange quotation possible. This will leave 5,400,000 shares owned or controlled by the directors, Basil and Howard Samuel and Mr. Arthur P. Wallace. Dealings are expected to begin around 15s each. The price will go higher. Most of the 5 million odd shares almost certainly belong to the Samuel brothers who become the new property millionaires.
News Chronicle March 19 1959
Birmingham Daily Post – Thursday 19 March 1959
Director to Marry His Former Wife
Mr. Howard Samuel, a London property owner and publishing director. and his former wife, Jane, whose 14-year marriage was dissolved last July, are to be re-married at Caxton Hall, London, to-morrow.
Evening Standard 23 March 1959
Aberdeen Evening Express – Thursday 11 June 1959
BASIL AND HOWARD SAMUEL
Property millionaire Basil Samuel has given to an appeal fund for Israel, shares worth £100,000 of Great Portland Estates, the company he controls with his Socialist brother. Howard Samuel. This new method of charity endowment was born in the mind of store chief Israel Sieff three years ago.. “The aim is to establish a fund of many millions. “ he says. To launch Steff’s plan a reception for substantial property men. Host was Mr Claude Leigh (71), a leading figure in the estate world. Mr Basil Samuel was the first to respond to that appeal. Basil and Howard Samuel launched Great Portland Estates last March. They, and their families, collected £1,380,000 from the 10 shilling shares they sold. Basil (48) still holds more than 250,000,000 shares. Howard 230,000,000 Present price: Around 20shillings.
These shrewd young brothers are now worth around £8,000,000 each.
The Daily Telegraph 20 June 1960
HOWARD SAMUEL DESTROYS A BLOCK OF LONDON
Liverpool Echo – Monday 20 March 1961
BID REJECTED
£645,000 Offer for Publishers
A £645.000 take-over bid for Associated Book Publishers, which include Eyre and Spottiswood, Methuen and Company, and Chapman and Hall, has been rejected (writes Our City Correspondent). The board announced this afternoon that holders of more than half the ordinary capital are not prepared to accept an offer for their holdings. The bid for the 258,000 £1 shares was made by McGibbon and Kee a publishing company owned almost entirely by Mr. Howard Samuel, who is also a big property owner. Last Wednesday he offered 42s 6d for each Associated share This morning he raised it to 50s. following a rise to 48s on the London Stock Exchange last Friday.
Evening Standard 20 March 1961
Daily Telegraph 12 May 1961
Funeral of Howard Samuel
Weekly Dispatch (London) – Sunday 07 May 1961
SOCIALIST millionaire ” Howard Samuel, 47 year old magazine director and publisher was drowned today on an Athens beach. He flew from London yesterday. Greek police were co-operating tonight with British consular officials to investigate the accident that killed Mr. Samuel on the first day of a three weeks’ Mediterranean holiday. Mr. Samuel, who made a half million take-over bid in March for Associated Book Publishers —one of the three firms who have the right to produce the authorised version of the Bible —was taking his first swim of a snatched holiday. Athens police said tonight: “We cannot find out yet what happened. We shall try to and the people who were there.” Mr. Samuel’s brother, M. Basil Samuel, said at his home in Hampshire, last night: “I was given the news of my brother’s death this evening by the Foreign Office”.
“The man who spoke to me knew few details but thought that he had a heart attack. We have made arrangements for his body to be brought home.” Mr Howard Samuel, father of two, first married Miss Jane Lane. an artist. at London’s Caxton Hall seven years ago, when she was 30. The marriage was dissolved in November 1958 but they married a second time four months later. Mr. Samuel went to Athens on his way to Cyprus in search of sunshine. Doctors had advised him that only sunshine could restore his health. He was a friend of Aneurin Bevan —who was godfather to the Samuel children. His brother Basil, with whom his name was linked in a £2,000,000 property deal was a Conservative. Howard Samuel, a London council schoolboy and R.A.S.C. private, started a multi-million business after working as a surveyor’s clerk for shillings. Two years ago, both Mr. Samuel and his brother claimed to own 25 property companies when they sold out to the Great Portland Estate for £1.380.000. The brothers were said to have been left with shares in the new company worth more than £5.000.000. They were owners of the world’s “golden acres” . . . the most expensive property in London’s West End.
Daily Mail 8 May 1961
HOWARD SAMUEL DROWNED AFTER HOTEL PARTY
Liverpool Daily Post – Monday 08 May 1961
ATHENS police were yesterday investigating the death of property millionaire Howard Samuel whose body was washed ashore south of Athens on Saturday. Mr Samuel, aged 47, arrived at Athens on Friday night put up at Grand Bretagne Hotel and went to Glyfada Beach twelve miles south of Athens for a swim on Saturday morning. The British consulate at Athens sealed his hotel room after police reported his death. It is understood the body will be flown to England on Tuesday. Police say Mr Samuel started his bathe at 10.30 am. His body was recovered an hour later. The British consulate had taken possession of his belongings and a postmortem would be carried out today.
Sea shallow where body was found
The coroner said the possibility that Mr Samuel died of a heart attack could not be excluded. The sea at the point where he was found is shallow.
Before going out Mr Samuel told hotel officials that he planned to visit Cyprus yesterday or to-day. Mr Samuel left school at sixteen became a surveyor’s clerk and entered the world of property dealings with £100. Late he and his brother Basil formed their own agency and amassed a fortune.
In 1944, he married Jane Lane an artist whose work has been exhibited in London and New York. They have two children – a boy and a girl. The marriage was dissolved in November 1958 but they re-married four months later.
Tenants included the BBC
At almost the same time Mr Howard Samuel and his brother Basil launched successful company Great Portland Estates Limited, taking over their already extensive London interests. Thev sold £1,380,000 worth of Great Portland shares that year and the remaining shares were estimated to be worth £4,000,000. The company’s tenants include the BBC and Central Electricity Authority. Mr Howard Samuel was a director of the Left-wing weekly Tribune and also controlled publishing interests including McGibbon and Kee Staples Press, Arco Bernard Harrison.
The Daily Telegraph 8 May 1961
The Guardian Monday 08 May 1961
The Daily Telegraph 8 May 1961
MR. H. SAMUEL MADE £3m FROM REAL ESTATE,
FAMILY ENTERPRISE
BY OUR ESTATES CORRESPONDENT
MR. HOWARD SAMUEL, who died while swimming near Athens on Saturday, was one of a family trio, each of whom built up a fortune of some £3 million in the property world, from selling and buying real estate and the development of it. His brother is Mr. Basil Samuel. Their cousin, Mr. Harold Samuel, is chairman of Land Securities Investment Trust. After leaving St. Paul’s School when he was 16, Mr. Samuel started on the way to his fortune by learning about the property market. He began as an articled pupil with a leading London firm of surveyors, valuers and property managers.
FIRM FOUNDED
Then, in 1934. he took the first major step. He and his brother joined forces to start the auctioneering and estate agency firm of Basil and Howard Samuel. It became a sound business, but war cut their enterprise short. Both brothers joined the Royal Artillery Survey Regiment, and the firm was as good as closed for the duration. In January, 1944, Mr. Samuel was invalided out of the Army and he at once restarted his family business. His brother rejoined him when he was demobilised. From then the firm of Basil and Howard Samuel steadily prospered. By 1958, the property investments of these two men, 99 per cent, of it in London, was enormous. They held office blocks. showrooms and shops through some 25 companies. Among their tenants in the West End were the B.B.C., the Central Electricity Authority, Ellerman Lines and the Crown Agents for the Colonies.
PORTLAND ESTATES
These many company interests were, in 1959, placed into the Samuel brother’s creation of Great Portland Estates Limited. It was said then that they received £1,380,000 in cash and were left with a controlling interest of some £5 million in shares, the value of which has since risen. Unlike his brother and his cousin, Mr. Samuel never owned a country estate with farming interests. He went into literary circles, mainly on the business side. He was a director of the Leftwing magazine Tribune, and the owner of two publishing firms. He also held an important block of shares in the New Statesman. His death leaves a lot of unfinished business. In 26 veers he made a fortune of well over £3 million. Had he gone on he would doubtless have doubled it.
PAINTER WIFE
Remarried After Divorce
In 1944. while in the ranks, Mr. Samuel married a painter, Jane Lane. Mrs. Jane Samuel was granted a divorce in 1958. Mr. Samuel and Jane Samuel were remarried in March, 1959. There are two children of the marriage. Nigel, 14. and Nicola, nine. Mrs. Samuel, 37, has exhibited her paintings in London and Paris.
HOWARD SAMUEL
SAMUEL, HOWARD (1914–1961), British property developer and Labour publisher. Born in London, the son of a prominent jeweler, Howard Samuel was the cousin of the property developer Harold Samuel, Baron Samuel of Wych Cross. Howard Samuel was educated at St. Paul’s School and founded his own estate agency with his brother Basil. After 1945 Harold Samuel’s firm, Land Securities, emerged as Britain’s largest property developer and estate agent. The holding company Howard Samuel formed, Great Portland Estates Ltd., [now called GPE] also became nationally known. Although one of the richest men in the country, Howard Samuel was a strong supporter of the Labour Party and was actively involved in financing the left-wing periodicals Tribune and the New Statesman. He was also a close friend of the radical Labour leader Aneurin Bevan. Samuel died in Greece of a heart attack at the age of only 48, leaving a fortune of £3.8 million, making him probably one of the twenty richest men in Britain at the time. His son Nigel appears to have inherited most of his father’s fortune. Other sources say that Howard drowned himself in Greece.
From Jennie Lee ‘A Life’.
Howard Samuel was a tall, thin, troubled man, known to the Tribune journalists as ‘the mad prince’ with, in their eyes, the arrogance bestowed by money. His wife Jane painted, and the paper’s art critic, all unknowingly, had slated an exhibition of hers. At the next board meeting, the head editor denounced the review as an “underhand and vicious attack, very wounding to the artist, unfit to appear in Tribune” Howard Samuel had threatened to stop subsidizing the magazine.
Liverpool Daily Post – Tuesday 09 May 1961
SAMUEL HAD CORONARY THROMBOSIS
British millionaire Howard Samuel aged 47 whose body was washed ashore on a beach near Athens on Saturday was drowned in less than of water after an attack coronary thrombosis Athens coroner announced yesterday. The coroner, Dr. Kapsaskis, said in a report after a postmortem examination that Mr Samuel collapsed in the sea. The officer in charge of the police investigation said later the death was being treated as an accident and no further action would be taken.
Daily Herald – Tuesday 09 May 1961
HOW SAMUEL DIED
Howard Samuel that curious modern phenomenon, a millionaire socialist, died in the sea after an attack of coronary thrombosis, it was disclosed in Athens yesterday. His close friends – in the property world and the Labour Party — may not be surprised that he should die like this at 47. They know his health had never been strong. He was invalided out of the Army. And, I learned yesterday, he was advised by his doctor not to pursue the ambition that gripped him during Labour’s first post-war Government to stand as a labour candidate. Howard Samuel had no difficulty in reconciling wealth, which he enjoyed, with his political and social ideals. He often said he would be happy to see property nationalized. His attitude was that in his hands the money was being used to propagate socialism. Which is why he went into publishing.
Daily Mirror – Wednesday 10 May 1961
The Jewish Chronicle 12 May 1961
MR. HOWARD SAMUEL
Mr. Howard Samuel, the 47-year old property owner, publisher, and Socialist millionaire, was drowned while bathing at Athens last Saturday. He had suffered a coronary thrombosis shortly after entering the water. Mr. Samuel left St. Paul’s School at 16 and after a period as a surveyor’s clerk, began an estate agency with his brother, Basil. Their company prospered and by 1959, when they sold out to the newly formed Great Portland Estates, they owned some of the most valuable sites in London. The deal realised then £1.380,000 in cash and shares reputed to value £5 million. Politics engrossed Mr. Samuel a great deal. He was a close, personal friend of the late Mr. Aneurin Bevan and a director of “Tribune.” the Left-wing weekly. He also owned McGibbons and Kee, the publishers and the Staples Press, and was a shareholder of the New Statesman
The People – Sunday 14 May 1961
HE HATED HIS MONEY
Having no experience myself, I’ve always assumed that the riches-always-bring-misery story was invented by lady novelists. But a friend tells me it was actually true of Howard Samuel, the property millionaire, who was drowned last week. Samuel was a genuinely convinced Socialist, so he could never reconcile his conscience with his great wealth. Especially because it mainly came from the automatic rise in site values and so without productive effort by himself. He gave large sums away to Socialist and other organisations, but the conflict remained—to harry his mind and waste his body. He died, as he lived, alone with it.
Daily Mirror – Thursday 25 May 1961
£4 MLLION IN PROPERTY
Property king Howard Samuel, 47, who was drowned in Greece three weeks ago, left nearly £4,000,000 —£3,839,422 net — his solicitors said yesterday. The bulk of the estate goes to Mr. Samuel’s widow.
Daily Herald – Friday 26 May 1961
EDITORIAL
Taxation—by choice
HOWARD SAMUEL was a millionaire. But was also Socialist. He could, perfectly legally, have taken measures avoid or reduce death duties. But he chose not to do so. He did not think it would be right And so £3 million out of his £3,800,000 estate goes in tax. There are not many men of great wealth who take this high view of their responsibilities. James Rothschild was another. He thought he owed a debt to his adopted country. His estate paid £7 million. It is a strange state of affairs when men who keep honestly and faithfully to the spirit of the law are penalised. Death duties, it seems, have come to be a tax paid only by the conscientious, the careless and the unlucky.
Evening Standard · Wednesday, May 31, 1961
The Guardian · Thursday, June 08, 1961
Evening Standard 16 July 1968
The New York Times 18 February 1975
