Sir Halley Stewart - Preacher, Politician, Businessman, Benefactor: Founder of The Sir Halley Stewart Trust

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.

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.

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 ha