Max Rayne, Baron Rayne

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Max Rayne, Baron Rayne Kt FRCP FRCPsych (born February 8, 1918 in East End , London - † October 10, 2003 ) was a British real estate entrepreneur and philanthropist , who was chairman of the Royal National Theater for several years and in 1976 as a life peer due to the Life Peerages Act 1958 became a member of the House of Lords . More than four decades built Rayne London Merchant Securities on (LMS), a real estate group that mainly on joint developments with landowners as the governing body of the Church of England ( Church Commissioners specialized) and the large London property owners. Most recently, Rayne and his family owned a third of the shares in LMS, which had a market capitalization of around £ 250 million . Much of the proceeds were used for charitable causes, initially through anonymous donations and later through the Max Rayne Foundation , a foundation that made grants of £ 2 million annually for arts, scientific and medical research.

Life

Origin and beginning as a real estate investor

Rayne, who came from a Jewish family who immigrated from Poland and grew up the son of a tailor in London's East End, attended the Central Foundation Boys' School. He then worked as a tailor in his father's studio and also completed evening law studies at University College London (UCL). During the Second World War he did his military service as a corporal in the Royal Air Force (RAF).

After completing his military service, Rayne resumed tailoring in his father's studio in 1947 and shortly thereafter they rented a shop on Wigmore Street for an annual rent of £ 500 for their clothing company. However, when the premises were found to be unsuitable, they were sublet for a profit of more than £ 3,000. After his father retired, he sold the clothing company.

His next investment was a stake in a business complex also on Wigmore Street, where Marks & Spencer would be the anchor tenant. After Marks & Spencer decided not to invest, Rayne found co-investors who enabled him to complete the development and secure a higher rent. On his own investment of only £ 1,250, he was ultimately able to realize a profit of £ 900,000.

In the growing real estate market of the 1950s, Rayne's company also grew, as he was particularly successful in convincing so-called blue-chip institutions and landowners to support his entrepreneurial goals. One of his most successful deals of the time was the redevelopment of Eastbourne Terrace near Paddington Railway Station , which was wholly financially taken over by the Church of England Property Management ( Church Commissioner ), while his company received half of the £ 6 million profits. He also had business success working with the Portman Estate real estate group , which owned a large part of Baker Street .

Acquisition of London Merchant Securities and other corporate investments

In 1957 Rayne transferred his real estate interests to London Merchant Securities (LMS), an investment company founded in 1873 as London & Hanseatic Bank , which was later taken over by one from Czechoslovakia . At the time of the takeover of the company by Rayne, the majority of the intrinsic value comprised claims for damages against the government of Komunistická strana Československa (KPČ) in Czechoslovakia.

At the same time, he acquired New River , the oldest company listed on the London Stock Exchange , the property in Islington and a stake in more than 20 million square meters (5000 acres ) of land on the outskirts of Glasgow , which he developed with William Stirling . It also maintained temporarily accounted for 50 percent of the built 1964-1968 General Motors Building in the Fifth Avenue in New York City , which at the time a value of 110 million US dollars had.

He also owned shares in printing and industrial companies as well as British Lion Films and the tabloid Daily Express . He also acquired a stake in Invergordon Distillery in 1961 , which was founded on one side of the Cromarty Firth after the abandoned Admiralty facilities were abandoned and left a great deal of unemployment in Invergordon . The distillery became the largest in Europe and initially produced around 45 million liters of whiskey annually. After the decline in production and lost profits, Rayne sold its shares in 1977.

Max Rayne Foundation

In 1962 he set up the Max Rayne Foundation named after him, a foundation that donated several million pounds annually.

The Foundation's beneficiaries included University College London, where he supported student housing and law school establishment , and Darwin College at the University of Cambridge . The St Thomas' Hospital in London Borough of Lambeth , whose Director he was, received a grant of 750,000 pounds sterling, support received for research while other hospitals in London. He donated £ 225,000 to the National Gallery and supported the Hampstead Theater Club. In France , he set up a research unit at the Pasteur Institute and a site for the British Institute . The Max Rayne Foundation also supports the hand-in-hand school in Jerusalem, where Arab and Jewish children are taught together.

In 1965 he married Lady Jane Antonia Frances Vane-Tempest-Stewart, fourteen years his junior, daughter of Robin Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 8th Marquess of Londonderry , who was one of the assistant to the Mistress of the Robes at the coronation in 1953 of Queen Elizabeth II .

As a supporter of British Jewry, Rayne became honorary vice-president of the Jewish Welfare Board in 1966 , which has been part of the British Jewish welfare organization Jewish Care since 1990 . He also served as life president of Motability , an organization that supports people with disabilities .

Knight Bachelor and Chairman of the Royal National Theater

The Royal National Theater in London's South Bank, which Rayne chaired between 1971 and 1988

Rayne, who was chairman of the London Festival Ballet Trust between 1967 and 1975 , was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Law (Hon. LL.D.) by the University of London in 1968 .

On January 1, 1969, Rayne was beaten to Knight Bachelor and since then has had the suffix "Sir". He also served as a member of the board of directors of the Yehudi Menuhin School, founded in 1963 by violinist Yehudi Menuhin , and of the Royal Ballet School, as well as a member of the advisory board of the traditional drama school Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).

At the suggestion of the then Chairman of the British Arts Council, Arnold Goodman, Baron Goodman , Rayne became Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Royal National Theater in 1971. At that time, the theater company moved into the newly built theater building in London's South Bank , which was a major financial challenge. At the same time, Laurence Olivier's long-standing activity as artistic director ended during this time , and Peter Hall succeeded him in October 1973 . In his 1982 memoir, Olivier criticized Rayne as the main person responsible for his early resignation as artistic director, which was rejected by Rayne.

Rayne as chairman of the board and Hall as artistic director remained in their posts at the Royal National Theater until 1988. Rayne not only took care of the company's financial organization, but also dealt with other difficulties, such as allegations of alleged profanity in the play The Romans in Britain by Howard Brenton . He also tried to mediate in disputes between Peter Hall and the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in questions of public art funding. At the end of his tenure as Chairman of the Royal National Theater, he donated £ 250,000 to set up a new theater foundation.

Member of the House of Lords and last years of life

By a letters patent dated August 2, 1976, Rayne, who also became Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1973 , was placed on Prime Minister Harold Wilson's Resignation Honors List as a life peer with the title Baron Rayne , of Prince's Meadow in the County of Greater London, raised to the nobility and thus belonged to the House of Lords as a member until his death. He was officially inducted into the House of Lords on October 12, 1976 with the assistance of Charles Moore, 11th Earl of Drogheda and Arnold Goodman, Baron Goodman. As a member of the House of Lords, he joined the Crossbencher , the group of non-party peers.

In 1977 he was also a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (FRCPsych) and in 1992 of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP)

Rayne, whose personal wealth was around £ 175 million in 2000, was Chairman of the Board and President for Life of London Merchant Securities until 2000, which weathered the real estate crises in 1974 and the early 1990s relatively well. In 1997, it made a comparatively rare headline in financial news after LMS lost a £ 179 million damages claim against British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB), in which LMS was previously a minority shareholder. In addition, between 1992 and 1995 he was Chairman of the Board of Management and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and thus the successor of the entertainment company First Leisure Corporation founded by his friend Bernard Delfont, Baron Delfont .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Notable Alumni ( Memento of the original dated February 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the homepage of the Central Foundation Boys' School @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.centralfoundationboys.co.uk
  2. ↑ London Gazette . No. 44804, HMSO, London, March 7, 1969, p. 2538 ( PDF , accessed November 23, 2013, English).
  3. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 46916, HMSO, London, June 1, 1976, p. 7823 ( PDF , accessed November 23, 2013, English).
  4. ↑ London Gazette . No. 46981, HMSO, London, August 2, 1976, p. 10687 ( PDF , accessed November 23, 2013, English).
  5. ↑ Entry in Hansard (October 12, 1976)
personal data
SURNAME Rayne, Max, Baron Rayne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH February 8, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH East End , London
DATE OF DEATH October 10, 2003