Henry Tate (other)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Sir Henry Tate, 1st Baronet (11 March 18195 December 1899), was an English sugar merchant and philanthropist, noted for establishing the Tate Gallery in London.


Life and career

Born in White Coppice, a hamlet near
Chorley Chorley is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Chorley in Lancashire, England, north of Wigan, south west of Blackburn, north west of Bolton, south of Preston and north west of Manchester. The town's wealth came pr ...
, Lancashire, Tate was the son of a
Unitarian Unitarian or Unitarianism may refer to: Christian and Christian-derived theologies A Unitarian is a follower of, or a member of an organisation that follows, any of several theologies referred to as Unitarianism: * Unitarianism (1565–present ...
clergyman, the Reverend William Tate, and his wife Agnes ( Booth). When he was 13, he became a grocer's apprentice in Liverpool. After a seven-year apprenticeship, he was able to set up his own shop. His business was successful, and grew to a chain of six stores by the time he was 35. In 1859 Tate became a partner in John Wright & Co. sugar refinery, selling his grocery business in 1861. By 1869, he had gained complete control of the company, and renamed it as Henry Tate & Sons. In 1872, he purchased the patent from German Eugen Langen for making
sugar cube Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double s ...
s, and in the same year built a new refinery in Liverpool. In 1877 he opened a refinery at Silvertown, London, which remains in production. At the time, much of Silvertown was still marshland. Tate was a modest, rather retiring man, well known for his concern with workers’ conditions. He built the Tate Institute opposite his Thames Refinery, with a bar and dance hall for the workers' recreation. Tate became wealthy and donated generously to charity. In 1889 he donated his collection of 65 contemporary paintings to the government, on the condition that they be displayed in a suitable gallery, toward the construction of which he also donated £80,000. The National Gallery of British Art, nowadays known as Tate Britain, was opened on 21 July 1897, on the site of the old Millbank Prison. Tate made many donations, often anonymously and always discreetly. He supported "alternative" and non-establishment causes. For example, he donated £10,000 for the library of
Manchester College Manchester College might refer to: England * Manchester College, a former name of Harris Manchester College, Oxford *Manchester Metropolitan University, formerly Manchester Polytechnic, formed in 1977 by a merger between Manchester College of Art ...
, founded in Manchester in 1786 as a dissenting academy to provide religious nonconformists with higher education. He also gave the college (which had retained its name during moves to York, London and finally Oxford), £5,000 to promote the ‘theory and art of preaching’. In addition he gave £20,000 to the (homoeopathic) Hahnemann Hospital in Liverpool in 1885. He particularly supported health and education with his money, giving £42,500 for Liverpool University, £3,500 for
Bedford College for Women Bedford College was in York Place after 1874 Bedford College was founded in London in 1849 as the first higher education college for women in the United Kingdom. In 1900, it became a constituent of the University of London The University o ...
, and £5,000 for building a Streatham Library, free library in Streatham. Additional provisions were made for libraries in Balham, South Lambeth, and Brixton. He also gave £8,000 to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary, and £5,000 to the Queen Victoria Jubilee Institute, which became the Queen's Nursing Institute, Queen's Institute for District Nurses. Tate was made a baronet on 27 June 1898. He had refused this title more than once until – after he had spent £150,000 to build the Tate Britain, Millbank Gallery, endowed it with his personal collection, and presented it to the nation – he was told the British royal family, Royal Family would be offended if he refused again. In 1921, after Tate's death, Henry Tate & Sons merged with Abram Lyle & Sons to form Tate & Lyle. In 2001, a blue plaque commemorating Sir Henry Tate was unveiled on the site of his first shop at 42 Hamilton Street, Birkenhead. In 2006 a Wetherspoons pub in his home town of
Chorley Chorley is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Chorley in Lancashire, England, north of Wigan, south west of Blackburn, north west of Bolton, south of Preston and north west of Manchester. The town's wealth came pr ...
was named after the sugar magnate.


Personal life

Tate married Jane Wignall on 1 March 1841 in Liverpool. They had three sons. Tate lived at Park Hill by Streatham Common, South London, and is buried in nearby West Norwood Cemetery, the gates of which are opposite a public library that he endowed. Park Hill became a nunnery after his death until refurbishment as housing around 2004.


Gallery

File:WNC Tate.JPG, Vault of Sir Henry Tate, West Norwood cemetery File:Henry Tate Mausoleum West Norwood Cemetery.jpg, Henry Tate Mausoleum File:Tate South Lambeth library (21755715568).jpg, Tate South Lambeth Library, Vauxhall File:Henry Tate Plaque at UoL.JPG, Dedication plaque at Victoria Building, University of Liverpool


Notes and references

* * *


External links


Tate GalleryTate & LyleSir Henry TateThe Sugar Girls blog: 'Happy Birthday, Henry Tate!'
* http://www.thepeerage.com/p59124.htm#i591238 {{DEFAULTSORT:Tate, Henry 1819 births 1899 deaths Businesspeople from Wirral English philanthropists Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom People from Chorley History of the London Borough of Lambeth Burials at West Norwood Cemetery Museum founders People associated with the Tate galleries Tate & Lyle people 19th-century British philanthropists Businesspeople in the sugar industry Sugar merchants 19th-century English merchants