Frank Harris Fulford

Frank Harris Fulford was an entrepreneur, art collector and businessman. Born in Canada in 1868, Fulford was educated in Leipzig then he returned to Brockville, a city in Eastern Ontario, where he worked as a dealer in music.[1] He married sometime before 1902 and had three children.[1] An older brother to Charles Edward Fulford, he moved to Leeds, in England, during 1902 to manage the British division of Charles's manufacturing business, C. E. Fulford Limited.[2] The company produced patent medicines, manufacturing products including Bile Beans and Zam-Buk ointment, and was first established in the UK in 1899 after achieving success in Australia.[3] The company undertook an unsuccessful court action, and a later appeal, against an Edinburgh pharmacist in 1905 but it continued to trade and prosper despite the judge opining that the business was "founded on, and conducted by fraud".[4] A year later after the sudden death of his wealthy brother, Charles, Fulford took up the reins of the family business.[1][a] He purchased Headingley Castle, Leeds, in 1909 and it became the family's main residence.[1]

Headingley Castle - his home and place of death

A love of music remained a constant factor in Fulford's life; he had been a skilled viola player from a young age and he composed the music for the Bile Bean March, part of the marketing campaign of the company, in 1898.[1] While studying in Leipzig he began collecting modern and classical chamber music from all over the world; the collection was donated to the library at Leeds University in 1936[2] after ill health meant he was unable to play instruments.[1]

A founder member of Leeds Art Collections Fund, Fulford was also a collector of Chinese jade and other objet d'art.[2] He donated several items to be displayed in the Blue Drawing Room at the Temple Newsam museum in 1939.[2]

Fulford died at Headingley Castle, Leeds, in August 1943.[2] His wife, Lily,[8] and a daughter, Frances,[9] survived him;[2] his estate amounted to more than £198,000.[10][b] A son, Jack, predeceased him in 1940.[2]

References

Notes

  1. ^ Charles Fulford died in 1906, aged 36 years, leaving an estate valued at £1.3 million,[5][6] around £176,623,322 today.[7]
  2. ^ £11,015,493 today.[7]

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f Bradford, Eveleigh, "They Lived In Leeds", northleedslifegroup.com, archived from the original on 6 February 2015, retrieved 15 February 2015
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Death of Mr F. H. Fulford", Yorkshire Evening Post, no. 16484, p. 5, 20 August 1943 – via British Newspaper Archive
  3. ^ Corley, T. A. B. (1987), "Interactions between the British and American Patent Medicine Industries 1708–1914", Business and Economic History, 16: 125, ISSN 0894-6825, JSTOR 23702630
  4. ^ "Bile Beans", British Medical Journal, 2 (2335): 825–826, 30 September 1905, JSTOR 20286808
  5. ^ "Singular bequest to charity", Poverty Bay Herald, Papers Past, 29 December 1906, retrieved 20 February 2015
  6. ^ "NOTES FROM LONDON". Kalgoorlie Western Argus. Vol. XIII, no. 628 and 629. Western Australia. 1 January 1907. p. 22. Retrieved 18 May 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ a b UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  8. ^ "Deaths", Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, no. 29959, p. 2, 20 August 1943 – via British Newspaper Archive
  9. ^ "Headingley Families United", Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, no. 24933, p. 6, 9 June 1927 – via British Newspaper Archive
  10. ^ "Latest wills", Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, no. 30242, p. 3, 19 July 1944 – via British Newspaper Archive