George Herbert Strutt
George Herbert Strutt (1854–1928), was a cotton mill owner and philanthropist from Makeney and Belper in Derbyshire. Strutt became a High Sheriff.[1] He was a descendant of Jedediah Strutt. The Strutt family made themselves, and Britain, rich with their cotton business.[2] Strutt bought the Scottish Glensanda estate where his son was lost and was found as a clothed skeleton five years later.[3]
Biography
George Herbert Strutt was born in 1854 in Belper. He was from the well known Strutt family whose fortune came from cotton mills and the inventions of the Strutt ancestors back to Jedediah Strutt. His father was George Henry Strutt and his mother was Agnes (born Ashton). He was the youngest child and only son. His three elder sisters were Susan Agnes, Lucy Frances and Clara Strutt.[4]
In 1902, Strutt, and his wife Emily, bought the Glensanda and Kingairloch estates on the Morvern Peninsula in Scotland.[5] At these 24,000-acre (97 km2) estates he built cottages and pony paths, enlarged the existing house and a dam in Glen Galmadale to hold water that could be used to keep the River Galma in flow (and fish) when there was a drought. The Strutt family were able to take cruises to Oban and nearby islands on the 150 ton steam ship, Sanda, Strutt kept there.[2] Given the inaccessibility of the estate, a boat of some form was essential.
Like a number of his ancestors he was High Sheriff of Derbyshire, in 1903.[1]
In 1907 he completed a long debate with the education authorities and was able to fund an elementary school for the children of Belper and its surrounding Derbyshire villages. The school was opened on May 7th 1909 by the Duke of Devonshire.[6] Herbert Strutt School cost Strutt £20,000 and included large playing fields and stained glass in the library showing the Strutt coat of arms. In 1910 he funded a public swimming pool in Belper[4] and within four years he gave an addition £5,000 to expand the school's facilities. The school went on to be a Grammar school before it was merged with two secondary modern schools to create the Belper School. The school's name and Strutt's gift are remembered in the name of an infant school in Belper.[7] The school building is now being used by the community.[6]
In 1921, Strutt again contributed to Derbyshire's Belper community. This time he gave land which was used to create the Memorial Gardens to remember those who had died in the First World War.[8]
After Strutt's death, the estate at Glensanda was inherited by his son Arthur and then shared, in 1930, with Arthur's New Zealand wife, Patricia. Arthur died in odd circumstances. He went out one morning and five years later his death was to be presumed. On the Monday following his memorial service his body was found. His clothed skeleton was found half a mile from his home by forestry workers, but it was too late to ascertain his cause of death.[3]
Portraits of Strutt and "Mrs George Strutt", both by Frank Ernest Beresford, are owned by Belper Town Council and Derby Art Gallery respectively.[9]
References
- ^ a b "No. 27534". The London Gazette. 13 March 1903.
- ^ a b Patricia Strutt, Obituary, Telegraph, accessed December 2009
- ^ a b "The Killer Lady of Kingairloch", The Independent, accessed December 2009
- ^ a b Belkper research
- ^ Undiscovered Scotland
- ^ a b Strutts, accessed December 2009
- ^ Herbert Strutt Primary School, accessed December 2009
- ^ Belper Town Council, accessed December 2009
- ^ Beresford, BBC, accessed August 2011