Sir Halley Stewart Trust: Publications

<p>First published in 1968, the original blurb reads: "Sir Halley Stewart’s last ambition was to reach his hundredth birthday, as the final distinction of a life full of achievement, starting from boyhood as one of the fourteen children of a poor Dissenting minister. But he had barely entered his hundredth year when he died at Harpenden in January 1937.</p><p>In 1932 he was the second oldest man ever to be knighted in Britain. He made two fortunes and left almost all his wealth to a trust with a Christian foundation and the aim of promoting pioneer research. He was a preacher, politician, industrialist, and public benefactor, and gave his name to Stewartby, the world’s greatest centre of brick-making.</p><p>In the story of this Grand Old Man, whose political passions were set aflame by Gladstone himself and whose religious convictions were first caught from a tough but much revered father, David Newton has not been content to chronicle the events of ninety-nine significant years. He has preferred to picture the personal characteristics of Halley Stewart in their development against the family and contemporary background that stretches almost from Napoleon to Hitler.</p><p>With his hardy Scottish blood and his staunch independence; with financial genius co-existing with dislike of personal riches and practical concern for the under privileged; with firm convictions and strong faith fortified by boundless physical energy and intellectual power, Halley Stewart’s character was indeed – and is still – an inspiration.</p><p>Mr Newton’s careful, intimate and lively study makes a charming family record, but pre-eminently it shows the man at close quarters, laughing and mourning, fighting and planning, longing and enthusing, working and triumphing: a portrait in which a past age comes to life again, and old principles which once made men uncommon are quickened anew for us who live in a more common age."</p><p>This book is a re-issue originally published in 1968. The language used and views portrayed are a reflection of its era and no offence is meant by the Publishers to any reader by this re-publication.</p>