John Corbett (industrialist)

Edit links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other people with the same name, see John Corbett.

John Corbett is remembered with an inscription on the front of the Literary Institute in Aberdyfi, Gwynedd

John Corbett (bapt. 29 June 1817 – 22 April 1901) was an

the salt industry in Stoke Prior and Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire
. Locally he was nicknamed The Salt King.

Family background

Corbett was born in

railways
.

Foresight

John Corbett sold his share of the family canal business and, in 1853, purchased disused

industrial revolution
to mechanise and commercialise the business, soon making his salt workings the largest in Europe and built a great fortune.

Philanthropy

However he did not simply utilise this fortune just for his own ends, preferring to reinvest profits into the business processes, innovation and also into improving his workforce's working conditions and even raising wages. His workers were so well paid, for the time, that many could boast that their wives did not need to work at all.

He purchased a rundown house near to his birthplace, The Hill in Amblecote in December 1891. He repaired and refurbished the house, changing its use into a hospital and endowed it to the local people on 31 July 1893 as Corbett Hospital, with a sum of £2,000 for endowment (increased by public subscription to £5,000) and two sums of £500 towards the repairs fund and furnishing. John Corbett never lived at The Hill.[1]

Politics

He was elected at the

House of Commons at the 1892 general election.[3]

Marriage

In 1855 he met his future wife Hanna O'Meara in Paris. She lived in Paris with her Irish father and mother. He married her within a year of meeting her. They had six children together.

She missed her elegant Parisian lifestyle and the French upbringing she had enjoyed so Corbett had a French style

chateau built to assuage her homesickness, completed in 1875 for the staggering cost, at the time, of £247,000. Chateau Impney still stands today, as a well-known landmark just outside Droitwich Spa
.

They separated after nearly thirty years of marriage.

Retirement

Stoke Prior, Worcestershire: Graves of Thomas and John Corbett in the churchyard of St Michael's Church

In 1888, he sold the massive salt business to the

Aberdovey
literary institute.

He died on 22 April 1901 and was buried in the churchyard of St Michaels, Stoke Prior, Worcestershire.

Notes

  1. ^ "Ace Finance – Loans and lending guide".
  2. ISBN 0-900178-26-4
    .
  3. ISBN 0-900178-27-2
    .
  4. ^ Measuring Worth – Home Archived 2008-01-19 at the Wayback Machine at www.measuringworth.com

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Corbett The Salt King.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Droitwich
1874 – 1892 		Succeeded by
Richard Biddulph Martin
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Corbett_(industrialist)&oldid=1176774610"