Sir Thomas Johnstone Lipton, 1st Baronet was a Scotsman of Ulster-Scots parentage who was a self-made man, as company founder of Lipton Tea, merchant, philanthropist and yachtsman who lost 5 straight America's Cup matches.
35 Facts About Thomas Lipton
2.
Thomas Lipton engaged in extensive advertising for his chain of grocery stores and his brand of Lipton teas.
3.
Thomas Lipton boasted that his secret for success was selling the best goods at the cheapest prices, harnessing the power of advertising, and always being optimistic.
4.
Thomas Lipton was the most persistent challenger in the history of the America's Cup yacht race.
5.
Thomas Lipton's parents were married in St Mark's Church of Ireland Church in Aghadrumsee, near Roslea.
6.
The Liptons had been smallholders in County Fermanagh for generations but, by the late 1840s, Thomas Lipton's parents had been forced to leave Ireland due to the Great Famine of 1845.
7.
Thomas Lipton's father had a number of occupations throughout the 1840s and 1850s, including working as a labourer and as a printer.
8.
Thomas Lipton left school at the age of thirteen to supplement his parents' limited income, and found employment as a printer's errand boy, and later as a shirtcutter.
9.
Thomas Lipton enrolled at a night school, the Gorbals Youth's School, during this period.
10.
In 1864 Thomas Lipton signed up as a cabin boy on a steamer running between Glasgow and Belfast and was captivated by life aboard the ship and the stories told by sailors who had travelled to the United States.
11.
Thomas Lipton had a number of jobs during this time: at a tobacco plantation in Virginia, as an accountant and book-keeper at a rice plantation in South Carolina, as a door-to-door salesman in New Orleans, a farmhand in New Jersey, and finally as a grocery assistant in New York.
12.
Thomas Lipton returned to Glasgow in 1870, initially helping his parents run their small shop in the Gorbals.
13.
In 1880, Thomas Lipton invested in the young stockyards of Omaha, Nebraska, founding a large packing plant in South Omaha which he sold to American interests in 1887.
14.
Thomas Lipton started bypassing traditional trading and wholesale distribution channels in order to sell teas at unprecedentedly low prices to the untapped poor working class market.
15.
Thomas Lipton visited British Ceylon in 1890 and made business deals with James Taylor, who introduced tea gardens to the country with indentured Tamil workers from British India.
16.
Thomas Lipton's company purchased Ceylon tea, distributing it through Europe and the USA beginning in 1890.
17.
King Edward VII and King George V both shared their interest in yachting with Thomas Lipton and enjoyed his company.
18.
Thomas Lipton was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame in 1993.
19.
Thomas Lipton donated the Copa Lipton trophy which was contested between the national football teams of Argentina and Uruguay from 1905 to 1992.
20.
Thomas Lipton never had a relationship with a woman, using as the excuse that none measured up to his mother.
21.
Thomas Lipton came to his home, Osidge, in Southgate, London, from Muswell Hill in 1892.
22.
Thomas Lipton was driven to his offices in City Road each day, and did not use the nearby railway.
23.
Thomas Lipton placed his yachts at the disposal of the Red Cross, the Scottish Women's Hospitals Committee of Dr Elsie Inglis, the Serbian Supporting Fund and others, for the transport of medical volunteers and medical supplies.
24.
At the height of the epidemic, Thomas Lipton decided to visit Serbia, travelling aboard his yacht Erin via Sardinia, Malta, Athens and Thessaloniki.
25.
Thomas Lipton's modesty made him very popular among the people.
26.
Thomas Lipton asked only for modest lodgings and requested for meals only what the common people ate under war conditions.
27.
Thomas Lipton liked to pose for photographs with Serbian officers and soldiers.
28.
Thomas Lipton was made an honorary citizen of the city of Nis.
29.
Sir Thomas Lipton was proud of his successes in life, and any reference to him made in any publication was always carefully cut out and pasted into a book kept for this purpose.
30.
Thomas Lipton was a very genial man to meet and always put a stranger quickly at ease.
31.
Thomas Lipton was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order by Edward VII on 8 March 1901.
32.
Thomas Lipton was Initiated to Scottish Freemasonry in Lodge Scotia, No 178,.
33.
Thomas Lipton died at Osidge on 2 October 1931 and bequeathed the majority of his fortune to his native city of Glasgow, including his yachting trophies, which are now on display at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
34.
Sir Thomas Lipton was buried alongside his parents and siblings in Glasgow's Southern Necropolis.
35.
Thomas Lipton left no issue and so his title was not be carried forward and died with him.