Skinflint's City Diary
The lamentable murder of Sir Richard Sharpies, the Governor of Bermuda, earlier this year, is still unredressed. His wife and family had the immediate and deep sympathy of everyone. Perhaps sufficient time has elapsed for a mild protest to be made on the gift of a life peerage to his widow, Pamela Sharpies. Even Sir Richard's friends, amongst the closest of whom is the Prime Minister, must admit he made only the most marginal contribution to his party's first two years in office If he had remained in office it is unlikely that he would have automatically received a seat in the Lords upon retirement, The award to Lady Sharpies, sincerely though it was made, is as inappropriate as it would be in similar circumstances to the widow of a general struck down in battle.
Ryman's folly
Whitaker Wright, the company promoter and swindler, spent over £800,000 on the Witley Park estate near Godalming at the turn of the century. It was known as Wright's Folly. Whitaker Wright fled from England on the collapse of his London and Globe Finance Corporation but was extradited from the United States and, as was the way of the law with important financiers, very much then as now, he was reluctantly prosecuted. He was sentenced to seven years penal servitude but on leaving the dock ceased to trouble the authorities by taking cyanide. One's blood boils wondering why a certain City financier no longer young is not already behind bars for the magnitude of his swindles which in their scope and callous effrontery surpass everything done by Whitaker Wright, Hooley, Horatio Bottomley and the Great Train Robbers together.
Anyway, back to Whitaker Wright's fifteen hundred acre Witley Park estate, which was sold a week or two ago, after many owners, to an anonymous buyer at one time thought to be the ex-King . Constantine of Greece. Savills, the estate agents, have denied it is the king but say that it is " a man of about forty who has retired but is still active and who intends to move into the house with his wife and family."
I am able to reveal Savills' secret, which will hardly stop the presses in Fleet Street. The buyer is Nicholas Ryman, the stationery shop chain man, who sold out to Burton the Tailor for £4i million last year.
Haslemere Estates
Christopher SeImes, the money man, has been building up a stake in Fred Cleary's Haslemere Estates, which have a market capitalisation of around £60 millions,. Seimes has been bankrolled by Dalton Barton — a subsidiary of Keyser Ullman — for what is rumoured to be half the profit, all the interest and a commitment fee. SeImes is planning, so the story goes, to sell his stake to the small private Mayfair bank, Morris Wigram, who may decide to go public by reversing themselves into Haslemere if they can get away with it. Morris Wigram earn a volatile £500,000 a year through special situations and moneylending. It would be a fine coup if they get Haslemere, with its valuable property portfolio and highquality rental income. Contracts are already in existence, it is believed, between SeImes and Morris Wigram. If I were Fred Cleary I would have a chat with my ex-apprentice, Geoffrey James of the private Compass Securities, whose equally good property portfolio matches. Haselemere's, pretty damn quick.
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