Hugo Hirst, 1st Baron Hirst

Sir Hugo Hirst, 1st Baronet (1930)

Hugo Hirst, 1st Baron Hirst (born November 26, 1863 in Altenstadt (Iller) as Hugo Hirsch , † January 22, 1943 in Foxhill House near Reading ) was a British entrepreneur.

Life

Hugo Hirsch was the eldest son of the Jewish businessman Emanuel Hirsch and his wife Lisa, owner of a brandy distillery in Altenstadt (Iller) in Bavaria . In 1870 the family moved to Munich, so that Hugo went to school there, including in the Munich Maximiliansgymnasium in the school year 1873/74 . In 1881 he emigrated to England, where he was naturalized in 1883 and took the name "Hugo Hirst".

In 1886 he allied himself with Gustav Binswanger (* 1855 Osterberg near Neu-Ulm , † 1910 in Hampstead, Greater London ), who later called himself Byng , and who had founded the electrical wholesaler G. Binswanger and Company in London ; the company was renamed The General Electric Apparatus Company . The following year they brought out their first electrical catalog. In 1888 they bought a factory in Salford near Manchester with capital from Gustav Binswanger and his brother Max , in which they produced telephones, electric bells and switches. In 1889 the company was renamed General Electric Company Ltd. (GEC) registered. They developed the use of porcelain as an insulation material in switches. From 1893 they started producing incandescent lamps . In 1919 the General Electric Company merged with the Marconi Company to form the Marconi-Osram Valve Company. Hirst was Managing Director in 1906 and Chairman of the General Electric Company in 1910 after Byng's death . In 1923 he supported Pinchas Ruthenberg in founding the Palestine Electric Company . From 1928 to 1930 he was a Masters with the Glaziers' Company .

Foxhill House

In 1919 he bought Foxhill House near Reading, Berkshire, as his residence . In 1925 he was promoted to Baronet , of Witton in the County of Warwick , and on June 28, 1934 to Baron Hirst , of Witton in the County of Warwick. The latter of these two hereditary titles of nobility was linked to a seat in the British House of Lords , which he held until his death. In Hansard a parliamentary speech is recorded by him. Since both his only son and his son died before him, his titles expired on his death on January 22, 1943.

Marriage and offspring

On May 30, 1892, Hugo Hirst married his cousin Leontine Hirsch (* 1873, † 1938) in Munich, daughter of Hermann Hirsch, a manufacturer, and Sara, née Dyck. Her sister Amanda married his colleague Max Railing (1868–1942), who had come to England in 1892. He had three children with Leontine:

• Muriel Elsie Hirst († August 27, 1969)
• Irene Phyllis Hirst († June 30, 1995)
• Harold Hugh Hirst (6 July 1893 - 24 February 1919), Lieutenant in the 21st Battalion, Manchester Regiment of the Royal Engineers.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Hugo Hirst on Grace's Guide British Industrial History
2. ↑ Gernot Römer: Swabian Jews. Life and achievements from two centuries in testimonials, reports and pictures . Augsburg 1990, p. 215.
3. ^ Annual report on the K. Maximilians-Gymnasium in Munich for the school year 1873/74.
4. ↑ http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/The-General-Electric-Company  ( 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.  
5. ^ The London Gazette : 33063, 4449 , July 3, 1925.
6. ↑ The London Gazette: No. 34066, p. 4222 , July 3, 1934.
7. ↑ Hansard 1803-2005: Mr Hugo Hirst

literature

• Motoring Annual and Motorist's Year Book 1903, 1904
• The Times , January 25, 1943
• Kurt Jäger, Friedrich Heilbronner: Lexicon of electrical engineers . 2nd Edition. VDE Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8007-2903-6 .

Web links

• http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Osram
• http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Robertson_Incandescent_Lamp_Co
• http://gechistory.org/index.php/companies/the-pre-1900-gec
• http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/The-General-Electric-Company