Sir Henry Philip Price, 1st Baronet (17 February 1877 – 12 December 1963) was a British businessman and philanthropist. Price was born in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

to Joseph Price and Elizabeth Helen Price. In 1919, he opened a tailor's shop in Silsden, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire now West Yorkshire. He prospered by introducing the suit to those who previously could not afford one. A factory in Leeds produced the suits, which were ordered by customers from the company's branches. The company was known as the Fifty Shilling Tailors, £2.50 in current terms but not current monetary worth; for example, 50 shillings in 1940 had a purchasing value of approximately £70.00 in today's financial market (value as of 2005). In 1953, the company was bought by

United Drapery Stores United Drapery Stores, or UDS, was a British retail group that dominated the British high street from the 1950s to the early 1980s. Early history In 1925, Charterhouse Bank set up Charterhouse Investment Trust. The trust started buying up dep ...

, who used one of the Price group's trade names, John Collier. Sir Henry Price used part of his fortune in the promotion of botany and has a garden named after him at

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its living collections include some of the ...

. In 1938, he bought

Wakehurst Place Wakehurst, previously known as Wakehurst Place, is a house and botanic gardens in West Sussex, England, owned by the National Trust but used and managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It is near Ardingly, West Sussex in the High Weald (gr ...

, an Elizabethan mansion built in 1590 and set in 500 acres, which he left to the nation in 1963 and the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,10 ...

took a lease on it from the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

in 1965. It is now the home of the

Millennium Seed Bank The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership (MSBP or MSB), formerly known as the Millennium Seed Bank Project, is the largest '' ex situ'' plant conservation programme in the world coordinated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. After being awarded a ...

as well as a number of National Collections of trees (

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains ...

, beech and

Skimmia ''Skimmia'' is a genus of four species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the rue family Rutaceae, all native to warm temperate regions of Asia. The leaves are clustered at the ends of the shoots, simple, lanceolate, 6–21 cm long and ...

family of shrubs). A University of Leeds student accommodation built in the 60s on Clarendon Road, Leeds was named after him. Wakehurst Place Mansion 2, West Sussex - Aug 2009

Wakehurst Place Mansion 2, West Sussex - Aug 2009

He was also a generous benefactor of

Chatham House Chatham House, also known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, is an independent policy institute headquartered in London. Its stated mission is to provide commentary on world events and offer solutions to global challenges. It is ...

( the Royal Institute of International Affairs) at 10 St James's Square and provided the funds in 1943 for The to acquire the adjoining freehold of 9 St. James's Square (formerly the Portland Club) to expand its premises. Chatham House's Henry Price Room was named in gratitude for his support over the years.''Chatham House: Its History and Inhabitants'', C. E. Carrington, Revised and updated by Mary Bone, ''The Royal Institute of International Affairs'', 2004. In 1953, he was created a Baronet of Ardingly, in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. He married Annie Craggs in 1899. They adopted two children. The baronetcy became extinct upon his death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Henry 1877 births 1963 deaths Businesspeople from Leeds Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom People from Silsden People who died at sea