Part 6. Lipton woos high society
Tommy Lipton, sprung from Scottish Irish stock knew how to tell a good joke and an intriguing story. Edward Prince of Wales was not much of a conversationalist and sought out companions who could readily amuse him; a woman must be beautiful and amusing, a man rich and amusing. Lipton the man was both and an ideal companion – twinkling eyed Irish humour, devoid of class consciousness, his own master all his life, a millionaire who had never owed a penny, no chip on his shoulder – and full of lively charm. Added to this Lipton came with no encumbrances; no skeletons in his cupboard. He had no wife, no divorce, no relatives and no old friends. He was rich, he was friendly, a raconteur, good company and generous, and as he was beginning to show through his ocean racing, a “jolly good sport”.
Friendship with Bertie gave him open invitations to Buckingham Palace and Balmoral, Sandringham and Windsor, and the royal yacht at Cowes. He also became a friend of Princess Henry of Battenberg, ex Empress Eugenie, the King of Italy and Alfonso of Spain – who proposed to Princess Ena aboard Lipton’s steam yacht Erin. Lipton routinely put the Erin at the disposal of his royal and titled friends for cruises and parties, high jinks and trysts. Lipton as a favour to the Prince of Wales discretely created a job in his American business for George Keppel, husband of Bertie’s last and most glamorous mistress, Mrs Alice Keppel, so effectively providing her with an income and keeping her husband safely out of England. Thus, as friend and confidant of the Prince and subsequently the King, and through his business connections, Sir Thomas enjoyed the cream of English and American society throughout the remarkable Edwardian era.
Nevertheless, the Grocer did not let his business slide. His UK company paid shareholders good yearly dividends of 15% and he continued to expand his US business with shrewd dealings that impressed even the hard-nosed Americans. One deal in the Chicago stockyards where Lipton had cornered the pork futures market made him a cool $300,000. A local newspaper printed “Sir Thomas, you’re a bird. You don’t roar when we beat your sailboat, so we won’t chew the rag when you get even in a commercial way”. Lipton took a 20 year lease on a large six storey property in New York that became his US headquarters. It was to house his first complete tea packing plant there and became a launching pad for similar operations across the country. The Thomas J Lipton & Co business in America, unlike Lipton Ltd in the UK, remained under his sole control and all its profits were his own wealth.
At home Lipton was however already planning another ocean racing bid and soon launched Shamrock II as the challenger for the 1901 America’s Cup. Lipton lavishly entertained celebrities aboard the Erin and Alice Keppel was his hostess. Socialite Mrs Dana Gibson wrote to a friend “I took a real fancy to Lipton. He is so good natured and such a boy.” Columbia beat Shamrock II in all three races, but narrowly, in the total of ninety miles there was only three and a half minutes between their times.
Undaunted, and reminding listeners that “the shamrock has three leaves” Lipton soon laid the keel of Shamrock III for the 1903 series. At 14,000 square feet of sail she was to be his fastest boat yet, and the most expensive. Before the first race Sir Thomas lunched with President Theodore Roosevelt at the White House and acted as judge in a beauty contest – cleverly avoiding making a final choice (and thereby increasing his admirers) by saying of the final two contenders “It’s impossible for me to arrive at a decision as to which is the more beautiful lady – the one is perfectly charming, while the other is delightfully bewitching.” and presented each with a small golden shamrock. Unfortunately the race went badly for Shamrock III with Reliance easily winning every heat, but Lipton though privately deeply disappointed, took defeat lightly in public – where he jokingly complained that he had to drink his tea from a saucer as he was “unable to lift the cup.”
The death from pneumonia of Edward VII in 1910 marked the end of a glorious era – auspicious display, gaiety and frivolity. His son, now George V, was a different man and unlikely to surround himself with men of commerce such as the Rothschilds, the Sassoons, and Sir Thomas. Lipton however continued to serve his former royal friend Bertie by inviting Alice Keppel to stay at Dambatenne Estate in Ceylon as a refuge from publicity. Although Alexandra had invited his mistress to see Edward as he lay dying she was no longer welcome after his death. Mrs Keppel and her daughter Violet stayed in Dambatenne for three months while the press interest declined. Violet wrote later: “I shared a room with a tame snake and a wild governess.”
In the seven years since the inglorious rout of Shamrock III Lipton had taken up ocean racing with a vengeance and very successfully performed at English regattas and abroad. In 1910 he won six cups which were presented to him by Kaiser Wilhelm at the Kiel Regatta – and he had the Kaiser, noted for his ill humour, roaring with laughter over stories of his Glasgow youth. Diplomats were stunned at Lipton’s ability to put people at their ease but Lipton was now 60 and was beginning to be at odds with British politics. He felt that, unlike the USA, Britain’s prosperity was dependant on loans (even then!) and that she had imports far outweighing her exports. Lipton was starting to think more as an American as the First World War began.
Shamrock IV was built in early 1914 and was towed by Erin to Bermuda and thence to her wartime berth in Brooklyn. The Erin was painted white with a large red cross and kitted out as a hospital ship. In Yugoslavia she came under enemy fire, with Lipton on the bridge. Lipton’s presence in Serbia, bringing in a hundred doctors and nurses plus medical supplies to fight typhus, had through the publicity he inevitably attracted, the result of drawing public attention and funding to aid the appalling conditions in Serbia. Lipton was made a Grand Commander of the Order of St Sava and dubbed by the people “Tchika (Uncle) Tom”. The Erin was less successful – requisitioned and in the hands of the Admiralty she was renamed the Argusa – and was in 1916 sunk by a U-boat in the Mediterranean, steaming to help a torpedoed minesweeper, the Nasturtium. Six of Lipton’s former crew now serving on the Argusa were killed.
Next Part – Lipton’s later years – another two Shamrocks race for the America’s Cup – and the foundations are laid for a tea company that 100 years on still sells more packed tea than any other.