Sir Michael Harris Caine (17 June 1927 – 20 March 1999) was an English businessman. He headed Booker Bros and

Booker plc Booker Group Limited is a British food wholesale operator and subsidiary of Tesco. In January 2017, it was announced that the British multinational supermarket retailer Tesco had agreed to purchase the company for £3.7 billion. It was confirm ...

, the food wholesalers. His philanthropic activities included co-founding the

Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...

, creating the Caine Prize and the Russian Booker Prize, and serving as president of the

Royal African Society The Royal African Society (RAS) of the United Kingdom was founded in 1901 to promote relations between the United Kingdom and countries in Africa. The RAS is a not-for-profit membership organisation based in London. In addition to producing its jo ...

Career

Michael Harris Caine was born in

British Hong Kong Hong Kong was a colony and later a dependent territory of the British Empire from 1841 to 1997, apart from a period of occupation under the Japanese Empire from 1941 to 1945 during the Pacific War. The colonial period began with the Briti ...

on 17 June 1927, the son of economist

Sydney Caine Sir Sydney Caine KCMG (27 June 1902 – 2 January 1991) was an educator and economist. Early life On 27 June 1902, Caine was born. Caine's father was Harry Caine, a railway clerk. Caine's mother was Jane. Caine attended Harrow County Scho ...

, who was later Financial Secretary of Hong Kong and director of the London School of Economics. Michael Caine attended Bedales, an independent school notable for its progressive ethos. He studied at the University of Oxford, receiving his bachelor's degree after writing on slavery and secession in the United States. He received his master's degree at George Washington University. He was an executive and board member at

, chief executive from 1975 to 1979 and finally chairman until 1993, the year he retired. He helped establish the

for literary fiction, using the Prix Goncourt as a model. He chaired the Booker Prize Management Committee. He also launched the Russian Booker Prize, awarded from 1992 to 2017. Caine headed and maintained several Africa-focused organizations and initiatives, including the

, London's Africa Centre (for which he chaired the council of management from 1995), the African Emerging Markets Fund, Africa '95 (chairing the executive committee) and the United Kingdom Council for Overseas Students. For his philanthropic work he was knighted in

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

Personal life

With his first wife, Janice Mercer, he had one son and one daughter; the couple divorced in 1987. Later that year he married the politician and philanthropist

Emma Nicholson Emma Harriet Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne (born 16 October 1941) is a British politician, who has been a life peer since 1997. She was elected as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Torridge and West Devon in 1987, befo ...

. Together they had a foster son, Amar Kanim, who was rescued from Iraq after surviving a napalm attack during the 1991 uprisings there. Caine was frequently confused with the actor Michael Caine, as his second wife recalled: "An enormous number of times. The phone would ring in the middle of the night, and there would be these inebriated women calling from Los Angeles saying, 'I'm coming over, I'm on the next plane, get my room ready. Caine died of cancer on 20 March 1999 in London, aged 71.

References

External links

"Papers of Sir Michael Caine, 1927-2012; n.d."
Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts,

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Caine, Michael Harris 1927 births 1999 deaths 20th-century British philanthropists 20th-century English businesspeople Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford English philanthropists George Washington University Law School alumni Knights Bachelor People educated at Bedales School Spouses of life peers