Charles Clore

{{Infobox person

| honorific_prefix = Sir

| name = Charles Clore

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1904|12|26|df=yes}}England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Immigration Cards, 1900-1965New York State, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1917-1967

| birth_place = London, England

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1979|07|26|1904|12|24|df=yes}}

| death_place = Westminster, London, EnglandEngland & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007

| nationality = British

| other_names =

| occupation = Financier

| spouse = {{marriage|Francine Halphen |1943|1957|end=dissolved}}

| children = 2 (Alan, Vivien)

}}

Sir Charles Clore (26 December 1904 – 26 July 1979) was a British financier, retail and property magnate, and philanthropist.

Biography

Clore was of Lithuanian Jewish background, the son of Israel Clore, a Whitechapel tailor who had emigrated to London, and later to Israel.{{cite news |title= Obituary: Sir Charles Clore |newspaper=The Times |date=27 July 1979 |page=17 }}{{cite news|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,319327,00.html|location=London, UK|newspaper=The Observer|first=Tim|last=Adams|title=No sweet Charity|date=28 May 2000|access-date=24 August 2024}} Clore moved to Birmingham and went to Montgomery Street School.{{cite news|newspaper=The Birmingham Post|date=27 July 1979|page=5|title=Merger king's Midas touch|first=Anthony|last=Everitt}} He worked at his father's textile business but then moved to South Africa at the age of 20.

Clore first made money buying and selling South African film rights to a world championship boxing match between Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey in 1926. In 1930 he bought Cricklewood ice rink but sold this to acquire the Prince of Wales Theatre near Leicester Square.{{cite news|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=28 July 1979|page=21|title=Obituary: Charles Clore, Philanthropist}} He also invested in Lyndenburg Estates, a South African gold mining company. In 1939, he led a syndicate to acquire London Casino.{{cite news |title=London Casino to reopen|newspaper=The Times |date=21 February 1939|page=12}}

After the war, he made more acquisitions, including a shareholding in Park Royal Vehicles, a textile mill in Yorkshire, and Richard Shops (a women's fashion retailer).{{cite news|newspaper=The Times|date=15 October 1946|page=9|title=Park Royal Vehicles Limited}} In 1949, he sold Richard Shops to United Drapery Stores for £800,000, an increase of £755,000 on his initial investment.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RBIfAQAAIAAJ&q=%22richard+shops%22+ |title=Design Management: Papers from the London Business School |author=Lovelock, Derek |editor=Gorb, Peter |date=1990 |page=151-156 |publisher=Van Nostrand Reinhold |isbn=9780442303631}} From 1945 to 1947, he owned Jowett Cars Ltd, where he was known as "Santa Clore" for his much anticipated financial investment. In 1951, he acquired the Furness Shipbuilding Company and in 1954, bought J. Sears & Co for £4 million.{{cite news|newspaper=The Times|date=14 January 1997|title=Sears needs the Clore magic to step back into City favour|page=31|last=Cunningham|first=Sarah}} Through Sears, Clore came to form the British Shoe Corporation, which became the biggest shoe retailer in the United Kingdom. He also owned Lewis's department stores (which included Selfridges), jewellers Mappin & Webb and Garrard & Co, as well as investing heavily in property.[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30943 Richard Davenport-Hines, "Clore, Sir Charles (1904–1979)"], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. In 1960, his City and Central Investments merged with Jack Cotton's City Centre Properties, uniting two of the country's largest property companies. City and Central had just acquired 40 Wall Street and City Centre Properties was constructing the Pan Am Building over the Grand Central Terminal in New York City.{{cite news|newspaper=The Times|date=26 October 1960|title=Mr. Clore and Mr. Cotton join hands|page=8}}

In 1959, Clore acquired Stype Grange in Berkshire, near Hungerford, from Lord Rootes; he lived there for 20 years.{{cite news|newspaper=Reading Evening Post|date=14 March 1979|title=Sir Charles will keep his £4 million estate|page=4}} In 1961, he acquired 16,000 acres of land in Herefordshire between Hereford and Ross-on-Wye, which had previously been owned by Guy's Hospital.{{cite news|newspaper=The Times|date=14 September 1961|title=Mr. Clore buys 16,000-acre estate|page=12}} Clore owned several good racehorses, notably Valoris which won the Epsom Oaks in 1966.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y5AAj7CVrC8C&q=Valoris+Oaks&pg=PA172|title=Vincent O'Brien: The Official Biography|first1=Jacqueline|last1=O'Brien|first2=Ivor|last2=Herbert|date=2006|publisher=Transworld Publishers Limited|isbn=9780553817393|via=Google Books}}

Clore was knighted in the 1971 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his philanthropic work.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/07/27/archives/sir-charles-clore-financier-dies-at-74-head-of-conglomerates-was.html|title=SIR CHARLES CLORE, FINANCIER, DIES AT 74|date=July 27, 1979|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=2019-08-02}}

Clore and his wife Francine had two children, Vivien and Alan Evelyn Clore. Clore Shipping Company had two oil tankers, the Vivien Louise and the Alan Evelyn.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9AwjAQAAMAAJ&q=%22vivien+louise%22+%22charles+clore%22+|title=Shipbuilding & Shipping Record: A Journal of Shipbuilding, Marine Engineering, Dock, Harbours & Shipping|date=1956|pages=372|language=en}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A0jlAAAAMAAJ&q=%22alan+evelyn%22+charles+clore+%22tanker%22|title=Petroleum Times|date=1959|language=en}} In 1957, Clore and Francine marriage came to an end.

Clore was one of Britain's richest men and became a tax exile in Monaco in 1976, after his retirement as chairman of Sears.{{cite news|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=23 June 2014|title=Obituaries: Geoffrey Maitland Smith|page=31}} He died of cancer in 1979 at The London Clinic. He wanted his fortune, worth almost £100 million, to go to his charitable foundations but, upon his death, the Inland Revenue sued, claiming he was British domiciled (he had claimed Monaco domicile), in order to collect inheritance taxes. His son Alan also challenged the will claiming that he was entitled to a share of the estate. The court upheld the Inland Revenue position.{{Cite web|title=Re Clore (deceased). [1984] BTC 8101 {{!}} Croner-i Tax and Accounting|url=https://library.croneri.co.uk/cch_uk/btc/1984-btc-8101|access-date=2021-07-10|website=library.croneri.co.uk}}{{Cite web|title=In re Clore, decd|url=http://uniset.ca/microstates/clore2.html|access-date=2021-07-10|website=uniset.ca}}

Philanthropy

In 1964, he created the Clore Foundation, a philanthropic trust providing support in Israel and the United Kingdom for hospitals, universities and cultural organisations. In 1967, he provided the Charles Clore Pavilion for Mammals at London Zoo. In 1976, he provided the lion terraces there too. After his death, his daughter Vivian became the chair of the foundation and, in 2000, she merged her foundation with the Clore Foundation to create the Clore Duffield Foundation, which is a donor to arts and Jewish community projects in Britain and abroad.{{cite web|url=https://www.cloreduffield.org.uk/our-history|title=Our History|website=Clore Duffield Foundation|access-date=25 August 2024}} The first major project after Charles' death was the creation of the Clore Gallery at Tate Britain in London, which houses the world's largest collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner, and was built in 1980–87 with £6 million from Clore and his daughter and £1.8 million from the British government.{{Cite web |url=http://www.jmwturner.org/critique.htm |title=Critiques of the Clore Gallery |access-date=2006-03-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060615063026/http://www.jmwturner.org/critique.htm |archive-date=2006-06-15 |url-status=dead }}

Legacy and commemoration

File:Charles Clore Park.JPG

The beachfront Charles Clore Park in Tel Aviv is named after Clore.{{Cite web|url=https://travel.sygic.com/en/poi/charles-clore-park-poi:5544463|title=Charles Clore Park in Tel Aviv, Israel|last=s.r.o|first=Tripomatic|website=travel.sygic.com|access-date=2020-04-17}} It stretches across 30 acres, and families use the seaside park to celebrate birthdays and host barbecues, or even attend city-wide events such as Tel Aviv Pride. His father, who died in 1933, is buried in nearby Petah Tikvah.{{Citation needed|date=April 2020}}

In September 1980 thieves stole 19 paintings worth £3 million from Clore's Monaco apartment, including works by Renoir, Monet, Pissarro and Utrillo. Clore's former butler, Ronald Headford, was found lying on the floor of the apartment after the theft, claiming that he had been attacked by the thieves, but was later found to have collaborated with them. Headford later committed suicide in Monaco's prison."Butler's suicide". The Guardian, August 6, 1981.

Clore was depicted in Stephen Ward the Musical, Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical based on the Profumo affair; he was loosely connected, having been a client of Christine Keeler.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jan/04/an-english-affair-richard-davenport-hines-review|title=An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo by Richard Davenport-Hines – review|newspaper=The Guardian|date=4 January 2014|access-date=7 January 2015}} In 2014 Clore's daughter, Vivien Duffield, saw the musical with William Astor, whose father, William Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor, was also depicted.{{cite news |url=http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9111901/william-astor-my-dad-his-pad-and-the-prufumo-scandal|title=William Astor: My father, his swimming pool and the Profumo scandal|publisher=The Spectator|date=11 January 2014|access-date=7 January 2015}}

Charles Clore

Biography

Philanthropy

Legacy and commemoration

References

See also