Big Money Up North

The sum of two million four hundred and seventy seven thousand and five hundred pounds is a tremendous amount of money.

Even in today's society where there are instant millionaires in what seem like daily prize draws  it still sounds like a big figure. As I walk into my local newsagents through that silvery grey coating of scratchcard foil that swirls around in the eddying air on the public pavement just outside the doorway, I could easily be rubbing shoulders with a new multi-thousand pound winner who may not yet know it to be the case until out on the street and commencing that almost secretive action of rubbing the cerrated edge of a coin over the small metallic squares .

Some days, when joining the end of a queue to purchase my favourite Boost chocolate and glucose energy infused bar (RRP 68p) I seem to be the only person buying an item other than a lottery ticket or one of the many stylised cards to win one of 25 VW Golfs, an equivalent of your working salary paid for life, a country cottage on which you will not need a mortgage or just a large bag of cash. I knew a couple back in the 1980's who had a win of £250,000 on the old but once dominant football pools. This was more than enough to fulfill their dreams of an easier life and I believe that they are still living off the interest from some prudent investments at that time and benefitting from some years of bumper, by current levels, interest rates. I expect that most participants in what is still a form of gambling would, today, probably dismiss the prospect of winning even a quarter of a million pounds as being not worth the £1 or £2 outlay for a ticket or scratchcard.

There is also the matter of what benefit can be had from pocketing the winnings. The indoor heated swimming pool with the lucky lottery numbers picked out in ceramic tiles at the bottom of the deep end may not be to all tastes. That convertible car with a customised, factory option only pearlescent flourescent paint job and personalised number plate may quickly become a bit of an embarassment and tiresome from the attention it demands. Well intentioned donations to charity, Boys Clubs or in sports shirt sponsorship of the under 12's village football team are all very philanthropic similarly, an appearance as a secret millionaire on a TV programme before that often a bit cringy, but quite emotional all revealing moment.

Much good can come of great wealth if channeled to where it can make a difference.

That brings me back to the large sum of money from the top of the page. Working back in time, to 1899 to be exact, March of that year to be a bit pedantic, the equivalent amount was £25,000. This was the donation by a Hull businessman, Llewellyn Longstaff to The National Antarctic Expedition to boost what had been up to that time a poor fundraising drive and allow the release of match funding by the British Government which led, in due course to the construction of the ship, Discovery and in 1900 the appointment of Captain Robert Falcon Scott as leader.

Longstaff's generosity was possible from the very successful paint manufacturing and oil seed crushing business of Blundell Spence and Company whose name lives on in the locally known Blundells Corner just on the northern edge of Hull City Centre.

Born in 1841 Llewellyn ascended to the industrial dynasty and at the age of 33 the company became Limited with an authorised capital of £400,000. In today's monetary terms that equates to the figure of just under £32 million pounds. Family members were the principal shareholders thrusting Llewellyn into the playboy category. He was however part of a forward thinking group who introduced a profit sharing scheme for their employees with an 1887 payout of £963 or £100,000 today amongst 326 employees, ironically, perhaps 2 employees, possibly not even based in Hull, in todays recessionary economy.

The paint making operation survived a serious fire in the 1840's at the central site and later expanded to a large mill premises close to the tidal River Hull corridor and increasing the pay roll to 400 persons by 1894.

Lllewelyn's interests were varied from travelling widely through Europe and America to being President of the Hull Chamber of Commerce, a long term member of the Hull Literary and Philosophical Society, Royal Meteorological and Zoological Societies and a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society.

He may have had intentions of an intrepid life for himself as a wayfarer and explorer but business appeared to take up the bulk of his time but understandable as the source of his great generosity. He moved to London whilst still maintaining strong links with Hull.

Llewellyn's son, Cedric fulfilled much of his fathers suppressed ambitions through active service in the Boer War and befriending Ernest Shackleton who also, like Scott of the Antarctic became a legendary polar explorer starting as third officer on Scott's early expeditions in 1901-1904. In some recognition of the family contribution to British Exploration a group of  peaks bear the Longstaff name in the Transarctic Mountain range. Scotts ultimately ill fated expedition received further funding in 1912. Another son, Tom,  now of independent income, was able to venture to the far ends of the globe including the discovery of the Siachen Glacier of the Karakorum in the Himalayas in the early part of the new 20th Century.

In such ways can great wealth be harnessed for the good of mankind. The spin off benefits from the exploration and pioneering from the Longstaff family contributions may be difficult to calculate but will certainly outlive an algae encrusted swimming pool, a gawdy motor vehicle of questionable taste and a life obsessed by numbers promising immediate celebrity and status.