Harold Samuel, Baron Samuel of Wych Cross

Harold Samuel

Nicolaes Maes, 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 founder of Land Securities, one of the United Kingdom's largest property companies.

Career

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.^[1]

He established himself as an estate agent but then in 1944 he acquired Land Securities Investment Trust, a small property concern owning three modest properties.^[1] After World War II he focused on securing bomb sites in Plymouth, Exeter, Hull, Coventry and Bristol and redeveloping them.^[1] He built the business into one of the largest companies on the London Stock Exchange.^[1]

He was knighted in 1963^[2][3] 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.^[4][5]

He died in 1987.^[1]

Other interests

Harold Samuel was an avid art collector: his collection of Dutch paintings was donated to the Mansion House Art Collection by his wife after his death^[6] 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^[1] and University College, London.^[1]

Family

He married Edna Nedas in September 1936 and they went on to have three daughters.^[1]

References

Further reading

• Dutch and Flemish Seventeenth-Century Paintings: The Harold Samuel Collection, Cambridge University Press, 1992 ISBN 978-0-521-41795-2