Henry Tate

Henry Tate

Sir Henry Tate, 1st Baronet (born March 11, 1819 in Chorley; † December 5, 1899 ) was an English industrialist in sugar refining and became known for founding the Tate Gallery in London, named after him .

Youth and apprenticeship

Tate was born in Chorley, Lancashire , the eleventh child of Rev. William Tate and Agnes Boothals. His father ran a school for poor children and it was here that Henry received his only education. With his older brother, Caleb Ashworth Tate († 1846), he began training as a grocer in Liverpool when he was 13 . After seven years he bought Aaron Wedgwood's business in Old Haymarket, Liverpool, and was now an independent grocer. His business was a success and by the time he was 35 he had six stores - four in Liverpool, one in Birkenhead and one in Ormskirk. He also expanded his wholesale business.

The entrepreneur

In 1859, Tate partnered with John Wright & Co, a sugar refinery, and sold its grocery stores. The two partners developed their sugar business and eventually controlled no fewer than four refineries:

• The Majesty Lane Refinery (at 100 tons of "Bastard" per week) Bastard Sugar is a light brown sugar. It was so named because it is neither white nor pure brown sugar.
• Two molasses (sugar beet) refineries, one on James Street (formerly James Crone, bought in 1862) and the second on Edmond Street
• and finally the Tate owned refinery on Earle Street.

In 1869, Tate dissolved his partnership with Wright, who retired for reasons of age, and took his two sons, Alfred, 25, and Edwin, 22, as employees in the company. They made the decision to streamline production in the four factories and refine them in Liverpool using the "Greenock Method". The Henry Tate & Sons concern started building the Love Lane refinery.

The Love Lane Refinery

With the construction of the Love Lane Refinery, Henry Tate made the second big decision in his life (after giving up the grocery stores). He was perhaps the first to understand that the battle for the UK sugar market could only be won on a large scale by producing the best quality sugar. For Henry Tate this meant refining using the "Greenock Method". His son Edwin visited John Walker's refinery in Scotland and came back confused and impressed.

The new refinery was on the banks of the Leeds and Liverpool canals and previously there were huge foundries and watermills in the countryside. Nearby were the refineries of Fairrie & Co on Vauxhall Street and George Jager & Co. on Burlington Street. It started operations in August 1872. From the beginning, it has produced 400 tons of sugar per week and quickly increased its output to 1000 tons. There is no record of how Tate financed the construction of the refinery.

Tate bought the best equipment on the market from the French company "La Compagnie de cinque Lys" and the Scottish company Blake Barcley in Greenock. He worked according to the latest methods: the low temperature (60 degrees) cooking, which was used in Greenock for the inferior quality of the sugar, and the French Loiseau-Bovin process, to improve the quality of the sugar syrup. The two French had offered their patent to several refineries, and although they had tried their method on a large scale at Sommier's works in La Vilette, Paris, they only found a buyer in Henry Tate.

Tate made sure that his sons received a good education through on-the-job training. He had the foresight to hire competent men, mostly from Greenock. So did the first managing director of the Love Lane refinery, JP Muir. He also hired JW MacDonald, son of a St. Vincent planter, as the first chemist in 1876, and from Blake Barcley, engineer James Blake.

The refinery in London

1874-75 Tate bought the site of a former shipyard on the Thames in Silvertown. Here he built his largest refinery, which began operating in 1878 under his son Edwin. The construction of this new refinery posed a not inconsiderable risk for the company and the costs became so high that he was forced to take his daughter Isolina out of boarding school.

In 1875, Tate, together with the refinery owner David Martineau, also from Liverpool, bought the right to use a new process for the production of sugar cubes from Eugen Langen from Cologne - with the agreement to pay royalties as soon as he made a profit. Until then, sugar was only available in so-called bread , which had to be broken into pieces or chopped to be consumed. The sugar lump was the real source of his fortune and made him a millionaire.

In 1892, Tate bought  exclusive UK patent rights for £ 12,000 from Gustav Adant of Brussels, who invented a better process for making sugar cubes. Tate's refinery began this use in 1894.

family

Henry Tate married Jane Wignall, daughter of John Wignall, on March 1, 1841. They had eight children:

• Isolina Tate († March 5, 1935)
• Agnes Esther Tate († August 26, 1929)
• William Henry Tate (born January 23, 1842)
• Alfred Tate (born November 12, 1845, † January 30, 1913)
• Edwin Tate (born March 22, 1847, † February 14, 1928)
• Caleb Ashworth Tate (born October 25, 1850, † April 5, 1908)
• Henry Tate (born December 8, 1853, † February 12, 1902)
• George Booth Tate (born January 15, 1857, † April 30, 1936)

After the death of his wife on November 29, 1883, he married Amy Fanny, Lady of Grace, Order of St. John of Jerusalem (LGSt.J.), the only daughter of Charles Hislop, on October 8, 1885 in London, the second marriage. Brixton Hill, London. Under their influence, Henry Tate became a benefactor.

The patron

Tate used his wealth to give gifts to colleges, hospitals and libraries, such as: B. Harris Manchester College in Oxford and in 1893 the London districts of Battersea, Brixton and Streatham with free libraries.

In London he lived in Park Hill, Streatham, in south London. He also began collecting art around this time, often buying paintings from the Royal Academy's annual exhibitions . He was a great patron of the Pre-Raphaelite painters , especially his friend John Everett Millais . To house his collection, he built a picture gallery in his home in Streatham, which he opened to the public on Sundays.

Tate wanted to donate his painting collection to the National Gallery, but there was no room for it, and he made it a condition that it be displayed in a suitable gallery. Finally the board of trustees found a suitable site for a new building on the Thames, on the site of the old Millbank Prison. The new gallery was designed by architect Sydney RJ Smith and Tate paid half of the construction cost, £ 80,000. Much of the cost was raised through calls for funds in the Times . The National Gallery of British Art, now known as the Tate Gallery , was opened by the Prince of Wales on July 21, 1897.

He donated 65 of his paintings and 3 sculptures to the gallery. They reflect his conservative taste, such as: B. Sir William Quiller Orchardsons Her First Dance and The First Cloud ; John William Waterhouse's Lady of Shallot ; John Everett Millais ' Ophelia , Vale of Rest , and North-West Passage ; as well as works by Sir Edwin Landseer , Queen Victoria's favorite painter.

On June 27, 1898 he was given the hereditary title of Baronet of Park Hill in the County of Streatham. After having refused this dignity twice, Lord Salisbury finally convinced him to accept it now, because a further refusal would have offended the royal family.

Henry Tate died after a long illness at his home in Streatham, Park Hill, on December 5, 1899, and was buried in Norwood Cemetery. His second wife survived and the title of baronet was inherited by his eldest son, William Henry.

In 1921 Henry Tate & Sons merged with Abram Lyle & Sons from Greenock to form Tate & Lyle .

literature

• Philippe Chalmin: The Making of a Sugar Giant: Tate and Lyle, 1859-1989 . Translated from the French by Erica Long-Michalke. Harwood Academic, Chur 1990, ISBN 978-3-7186-0434-0 .
• Andrew Lees: The Hurricane Port: A Social History of Liverpool . Mainstream, Edinburgh 2011, ISBN 978-1-84596-726-0 ; therein the chapter The Sugar Fella , pp. 191-195.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Philippe Chalmin: The Making of a Giant Sugar Tate and Lyle, 1859-1989 . Harwood Academic, Chur 1990, pp. 73 ff.
2. ↑ LIVERPOOL'S PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF SUGAR REFINING - Neville H. King
3. ↑ A method of refining of raw sugar by means of carbonate of lime saccharate; by Boivin, Loiseau and Comp. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 196, 1870, pp. 84-86. (From the Sucrerie indigène, 1870, No. 14)
4. ↑ Sir Henry Tate, 1st Bt. On thepeerage.com , accessed September 18, 2016.
5. ↑ Henry Tate Mews, Streatham SW16  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Built in the 1850's as a coach house for Henry Tate's Manor.  
6. ^ The Henry Tate Collection at the Tate Gallery
7. ↑ Lord Salisbury

Web links

Commons : Henry Tate  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Brief biography of Henry Tate
• History of Tate and Sir Henry Tate
• Sugar magnate and art lover Henry Tate died on December 5th, 1899, aged 80 . By Richard Cavendish - Published in History Today Volume: 49 Issue: 12 1999
• Liverpool Picture Book