Harold Samuel, Baron Samuel of Wych Cross

File:Harold Samuel, Baron Samuel of Wych Cross.jpg

File:Dutch & Flemish Seventeenth-Century Paintings- The Harold Samuel Collection.jpg, Young Woman Sewing, 1655, from the Samuel collection on the cover of the catalogue prepared by Peter C. Sutton.]]

Harold Samuel, Baron Samuel of Wych Cross (23 April 1912 – 28 August 1987) was the British founder of Land Securities, one of the United Kingdom's largest property companies.

Early life and family

Born in Finchley in north London and educated at Mill Hill School and the College of Estate Management at Lincoln's Inn Fields, Harold Samuel initially trained to be a surveyor.[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/40123 Harold Samuel, Baron Samuel of Wych Cross at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]

He married Edna Nedas in September 1936 and they went on to have three daughters.

Career

He established himself as an estate agent but in 1944 acquired Land Securities Investment Trust, a small property concern owning three modest properties. After World War II he focused on securing bomb sites in Plymouth, Exeter, Hull, Coventry and Bristol and redeveloping them. He built the business into one of the largest companies on the London Stock Exchange.

He was knighted in 1963{{London Gazette |issue=43010 |date=8 June 1963 |page=4794 |supp=y}}{{London Gazette |issue=43058 |date=19 July 1963 |page=6071}} and was created a Life Peer on 3 July 1972 taking the title Baron Samuel of Wych Cross, of Wych Cross in the County of Sussex.{{London Gazette |issue=45720 |date=6 July 1972 |page=8076}}[http://thepeerage.com/p19180.htm The Peerage]

He is often credited with coining the tricolon expression "location, location, location", but the phrase was already in common use when he was still quite young.{{cite web|author=William Safire|author-link=William Safire|title=On Language|work=New York Times Magazine|date=26 June 2009 |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/magazine/28FOB-onlanguage-t.html|accessdate=25 February 2017}}

Other interests

Harold Samuel was an avid art collector. His collection of Dutch paintings, formed for him with the help of the dealer Edward Speelman,"Edward Speelman", The Times, 10 September 1994, p. 19. was donated to the Mansion House Art Collection by his wife after his death[http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Leisure_and_culture/Local_history_and_heritage/Buildings_within_the_City/Mansion_house/Mansion+House+Art+Collection.htm Mansion House Art Collection] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090618214407/http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Leisure_and_culture/Local_history_and_heritage/Buildings_within_the_City/Mansion_house/Mansion%20House%20Art%20Collection.htm |date=2009-06-18 }} and subsequently displayed at the Barbican and toured the United States while the Mansion House was being renovated. A catalogue of the collection was prepared by Peter C. Sutton and published by Cambridge University Press to accompany the exhibition.

Samuel also became a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and University College, London.

Death

Samuel died in 1987.

Arms

{{Infobox COA wide

|image = File:Coronet of a British Baron.svg File:Samuel of Wych Cross Escutcheon.png

|escutcheon = Argent a bend Gules masoned Or between two masons' trowels bendwise Proper on a chief Vert a balance Or.

|crest = In front of a demi-sun Or a house martin wings addorsed Proper.

|supporters = On either side an old man Proper bearded in flowing robes Argent and shod with sandals that to the dexter holding in the exterior hand a horn of oil Proper lid and virols Or that to the sinister holding beneath the exterior arm two scrolls Proper.

|motto = Security In The Land {{cite book|title=Debrett's Peerage |date=1985}}}}