Frederick Alexander Szarvasy (20 February 1875 – 3 July 1948) was a Hungarian-born British financier. He became one of the leading financiers and industrialists in Britain.

Life

Frederick Szarvasy was born in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

, then a part of the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

. He was the son of Alexander Szarvasy, a banker.Francis Goodall, ‘Szarvasy, Frederick Alexander (1875–1948)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 200
accessed 14 July 2014
/ref> After spending some time in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

, he arrived in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

around 1901 and worked for Montagu Oppenheimer. Szarvasy quickly rose to prominence and gained a reputation for salvaging companies that were undermined by excessive debt. When

Dunlop Rubber Dunlop Ltd. (formerly Dunlop Rubber) was a British multinational company involved in the manufacture of various natural rubber goods. Its business was founded in 1889 by Harvey du Cros and he involved John Boyd Dunlop who had re-invented and d ...

faced bankruptcy in 1921, Szarvasy was appointed as chairman and managing director. Szarvasy was described by an American trade magazine as "the most daring and successful financier in London" in 1923. Szarvasy played a leading role in the foundation of Imperial Airways in 1924. Szarvasy acquired United Anthracite Collieries from Lord Melchett in 1928. As such, he gained control of 80 percent of the

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal, and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic luster. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the hig ...

supply. Szarvasy died suddenly at his London home on 3 July 1948.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Szarvasy, Frederick 1875 births 1948 deaths Hungarian financial businesspeople Hungarian Roman Catholics Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United Kingdom Daily Mail and General Trust people Hungarian bankers British financial businesspeople