Who is the richest person in Britain?

The richest man in British history - this title belongs to the shipping king Sir John Reeve Elleman. According to the latest archive documents, his assets at his peak were as high as 20 billion pounds, comparable to his contemporaries such as American car tycoon Henry Ford and oil magnate John Rockefeller. However, this huge amount of wealth is now missing. Ellerman was born in Hull, England, in 1862. His father was a German businessman who immigrated to England. With the meager fortune inherited from his family, Ellerman entered the shipping industry and worked as an executive at the Frederick Lehman Company. This company was the prototype of what would become Ellerman's merchant shipping empire. After many years of operation, by the 1930s, the company had more than 100 cargo ships and its ocean-going trade spanned the world. In addition, Ellerman was a financier and owned a newspaper. No one can say how much money Ellerman actually owned. Archives from the University of Glasgow show that Ellerman left an estate of approximately ￡37 million when he died in 1933, the largest inheritance in British history before 1970. Rubinstein, who wrote an entry for Ellerman in the Biographic Dictionary of British National Figures, said: "The whereabouts of his money has always been a mystery because it mysteriously disappeared from the estates of his descendants. "According to historians, during World War II, Ellerman's ships were requisitioned by the government and suffered heavy losses. About 60 ships were attacked and sunk. By the time Ellerman's son died in 1973, the ocean-going company left by the shipping king had less than 40 ships left. Later, the Elleman Group was forced to sell due to poor management, and his descendants have since become mediocre. Equally mysterious is Elleman's lifestyle. It is said that at that time, the British knew that there was a super luxurious manor in Eastbourne, which belonged to Ellemann. But little is known about the private life that takes place in the villa. Elleman himself is a reclusive man who rarely appears in public. His wife, Hannah Glover, lived a life of isolation from society. When Ellerman died, the newspaper even worried about not being able to find his photo when publishing his obituary.