Victor Matthews, Baron Matthews

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Victor Collin "Whelks" Matthews, Baron Matthews FIOB FRSA (birth name: Victor Collin Cohen ; born December 5, 1919 in Islington , London , † December 5, 1995 in Saint Brélade , Jersey ) was a British economic manager , entrepreneur and newspaper publisher who 1980 when Life Peer became a member of the House of Lords under the Life Peerages Act 1958 .

Life

Promotion to CEO of Trafalgar House

Matthews, who grew up as a half- orphan, began working as a clerk in a tobacco factory after attending elementary school and also attended evening school . During the Second World War he did his military service as a sailor in the Royal Navy between 1939 and 1945 and took part in the Battle of Dunkirk in May and June 1940 . After the end of the war, Matthews joined the construction company Trollope & Colls in 1945 , where he was promoted to contract manager. In 1955 he moved to the construction company Clark and Fenn as a director , but left it in 1960 after returning prematurely from a family vacation. He then went into business for himself by buying the small construction company Bridge Walker , whose operating value he increased eightfold to £ 2 million within four years by 1964 .

In 1968 Matthews became managing director of the construction company Trafalgar House , founded in 1963 by Nigel Broackes , which had bought a 49 percent stake in Bridge Walker in 1964, and held this position until 1977. Together with the company's founder Broackes, he built this company in the following years as Trafalgar House Public Limited Company into a conglomerate specializing in real estate investment and development, engineering, construction, shipbuilding, hotels, energy and publishing. At the same time, he also served as Deputy Chairman of the Management Board between 1973 and 1985 and as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Trafalgar House Group from 1977 to 1983 . In 1969 the group also took over its first employer Trollope & Colls , who built the Stock Exchange Tower in 1972 .

In addition to these activities Matthews was from 1971 to 1983 and CEO of of Trafalgar House purchased shipping company Cunard Line and 1976 to 1983 and Chairman of the purchased also from these Ritz Hotel London .

Newspaper publisher and member of the House of Lords

After the purchase of Express Newspapers plc, founded by Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook , by the Trafalgar House group of companies , Matthews was also chairman of the board between 1977 and 1985 and, at the same time, chief executive officer of this newspaper publisher from 1977 to 1982. In addition, he was CEO of the newspaper publisher from 1978 to 1982 and owner of the express newspaper group Fleet Publishing International Holdings Ltd, and from 1982 to 1985 CEO of the resulting company Fleet Holdings . In 1978 he used free printing capacities in Manchester to publish the first new tabloid since 1914 , Daily Star, which appeared for the first time on November 2, 1978 .

Matthews was a firm believer of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher introduced Thatcherism and was considered one of the largest single donor to the Conservative Party . By a letters patent dated July 22, 1980, Matthews was raised to the nobility under the Life Peerages Act 1958 as a life peer with the title Baron Matthews , of Southgate in the London Borough of Enfield , and belonged to the House of Lords as a until his death Member at.

Its official introduction to the House of Lords took place on July 23, 1980 with the assistance of David Allan Bethell, 5th Baron Westbury and George Brown, Baron George-Brown .

However, Matthews failed in two takeover attempts at the beginning of the 1980s: On the one hand, the Australian entrepreneur Robert Holmes à Court took over Trafalgar House from Lew Grade, Baron Grade the Associated Communications Corporation , and finally in 1985, when the Fleet Holdings Group itself was taken over by David Stevens . By that time, the company's value had multiplied to £ 300 million, largely due to its stake in Reuters news agency . Matthew's own stock at the time was £ 8 million.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ London Gazette . No. 48261, HMSO, London, July 25, 1980, p. 10581 ( PDF , accessed February 5, 2014, English).
  2. ^ Entry in Hansard (July 23, 1980)
personal data
SURNAME Matthews, Victor, Baron Matthews
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Matthews, Victor Collin, Baron Matthews (full name); Victor Collin Cohen (maiden name); Whelks Matthews (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British entrepreneur and publisher
DATE OF BIRTH December 5, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Islington , London
DATE OF DEATH 5th December 1995
Place of death Saint Brélade , Jersey