Joseph Rank (28 March 1854 – 13 November 1943) was the founder of Joseph Rank Limited, once one of Britain's largest Flour milling and bakery companies. He built his company into a leader in all aspects of the industry including the operation of Flour Mills, Bakeries and Retail outlets. After Rank's death in 1943 the company continued to grow under his son's stewardship before merging with Hovis MacDougall in the 1960s to form

Rank Hovis McDougall RHM plc, formerly Rank Hovis McDougall, was a United Kingdom food business. The company owned numerous brands, particularly for flour, where its core business started, and for consumer food products. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange an ...

(RHM).

Career

Born in Hull and educated at the Reverend Haynes's School in Swinefleet near

Goole Goole is a port town and civil parish on the River Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town's historic county is the West Riding of Yorkshire. According to the 2011 UK census, Goole parish had a population of 19,518, an increa ...

, Joseph Rank initially joined the family milling business.Joseph Rank at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
/ref> In 1875, he established his own business when he rented a small

windmill A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called windmill sail, sails or blades, specifically to mill (grinding), mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and ...

. Then in 1885 he installed a mechanically driven flour mill at the Alexandra Mill in Hull. His approach was to establish mills close to ports around the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

so expanding the business until it was the largest flour-milling business in the Country. During the 1880s, he became a staunch

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

. He was also a lifelong

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

fan. He established various charities which have now been consolidated into the ''Joseph Rank Trust'' and also supported the

Hull Royal Infirmary Hull Royal Infirmary is a tertiary teaching hospital and is one of the two main hospitals for Kingston upon Hull (the other being Castle Hill Hospital Castle Hill Hospital is an NHS hospital to the west of Cottingham, East Riding of Yorkshi ...

. He gave more than £3.5 million to Methodist charities. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he served on the Wheat Control Board. Sadly he saw the Clarence Mills that he had built in Hull bombed to destruction during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He died at his home in

Reigate Heath Reigate Heath is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Reigate in Surrey. An area of is also a Local Nature Reserve. Seven bowl barrows dating to the Bronze Age are designated Scheduled Monuments. Most of the site is heath ...

on 13 November 1943. He is buried at Sutton Cemetery.Joseph Rank
/ref>

Family

In 1880, he married Emily Voase and together they had three sons and three daughters, one of whom was

J. Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank Joseph Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank (22 December 1888 – 29 March 1972) was a British industrialist who was head and founder of the Rank Organisation. Family business Rank was born on 22 or 23 December 1888 at Kingston upon Hull in England into ...

. He married again in 1918, this time to Annie Maria Witty.

Career

Family

References

Further reading