SIR THOMAS LIPTON

( FRENCH )
UNIVERSITY FIVE YEAR INTEGRATED LAW COLLEGE
UNIVERSITY OF RAJASTHAN

JAIPUR

Submitted by: - Submitted to:-

Kapil Singh Shekhawat Mrs. Shelly Bohra
Sec. :- ‘ A ’ IVth sem.
Roll no: - 25
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that KAPIL SINGH SHEKHAWAT a student of

University Five Year Law College, IVth Semester, University of Rajasthan.
He has written the project entitled “ SIR THOMAS LIPTON ” under my
supervision and guidance.

It’s further certified that the candidate has made an appreciable attempt on
the subject mentioned above.

Supervisor
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

To put emotion on paper is incredibly difficult words perhaps who would fail to
express the gratitude. I own to my esteemed teacher and supervisor. I found no
words to express my sense of gratitude for providing help cooperation &
guidance at every step and their valuable time.
INTRODUCTION

Sir Thomas Johnstone Lipton, 1st Baronet, KCVO (10 May

1848 – 2 October 1931) was a Scotsman of Ulster-Scots
parentage who was a self-made man, merchant, and
yachtsman. He created the Lipton tea brand and was the most
persistent challenger in the history of the America's Cup.1

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
HYPOTHESIS

1
Glasgow Guide: Glasgow Info: Famous Glaswegians: Sir Thomas Lipton at www.glasgowguide.co.uk
PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD

Lipton was born in Glasgow on 10 May 1848. His parents, Thomas Lipton
senior and Frances Lipton (née Johnstone), were Ulster-Scots, who came from
County Fermanagh. The Liptons had been smallholders in Fermanagh for
generations, but by the late 1840s, Thomas Lipton's parents had decided to
leave Ireland and return to the land of their roots (Scotland) in search of a better
living for themselves and their young family. By 1847, the Liptons had settled
in Glasgow. Lipton's father would hold a number of occupations throughout the
1840s and 1850s, including working as a labourer and as a printer.

Thomas Lipton was educated at St. Andrew's Parish School close to Glasgow
Green between 1853 and 1863. By the early 1860s, his parents were the
proprietors of a shop at 11 Crown Street in the Gorbals, where they sold ham,
butter, and eggs. It was with the aim of supplementing his parents' limited
income that Thomas Lipton left school at the age of thirteen and found
employment as a printers errand boy, and then as a shirtcutter. He also enrolled
at a night school, the Gorbals Youth's School, during this period.

GROCER AND LIPTON’S TEA

In 1864 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 traveled to the United States. After being let go by the steamer
company, Lipton quickly used the wages he had saved to purchase passage on a
ship bound for the U.S., where he would spend five years working and traveling
all over the country. Lipton had a number of jobs during this time: at a tobacco
plantation in Virginia, as an accountant and bookkeeper 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.

He returned to Glasgow in 1870, initially helping his parents run their small
shop in the Gorbals. The following year he opened his first provision shop -
Lipton's Market - at 101 Stobcross Street in the Anderston area of Glasgow.
This enterprise proved to be successful and Lipton soon established a chain of
groceries, first across Glasgow, the rest of Scotland, until finally he had stores
throughout Britain. While Lipton was expanding his empire, tea prices were
falling and demand was growing among his middle class customers. In 1880,
Lipton invested in the young stockyards of Omaha, Nebraska, founding a large
packing plant in South Omaha. He sold it to American interests in 1887. In
1888, when his empire had
grown to 300 stores, he
entered the tea trade and
opened his tea-tasting
office. He started
bypassing traditional
trading and wholesale
distribution channels (most
UK tea-trading was
focused in London's
Mincing Lane) in order to
sell teas at unprecedented
prices to the untapped poor working class market.
 In order to provide his shops with goods Lipton bought plantations and in
doing so - amongst other things - he established the Lipton tea brand which is
still in existence today.

Thomas Lipton visited Sri Lanka in the 1890s and made business deals with
James Taylor the man who introduced tea plantations to Sri Lanka (Ceylon).
Lipton's company purchased tea from Sri Lanka and distributed it through
Europe and the USA.

SPORTSMAN

King Edward VII and King George V both shared their interest in yachting with
Lipton and enjoyed his company. Between 1899 and 1930 he challenged the
American holders of the America's Cup through the Royal Ulster Yacht Club
five times with his yachts called Shamrock through Shamrock V.2 His well
publicized efforts to win the cup, which earned him a specially designed cup for
"the best of all losers", made his tea brand famous in the U.S. As a self-made
man Lipton, however, was no natural member of the British upper class and the
Royal Yacht Squadron only admitted him shortly before his death. Lipton was
inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame in 1993.

Before the first Football World Cup was held in 1930, Thomas Lipton donated
the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy which was contested in two international
tournaments in Turin in 1909 and 1911. He also donated the Copa Lipton
trophy which has been contested between Argentina and Uruguay since 1905.

2
"Players of the Game; Charles E. Nicholson. Designer of Shamrock V. A Builder of Yachts. Designed
Famous Schooner.
PERSONAL LIFE

Lipton came to his home, Osidge, in Southgate, London, from Muswell Hill in
1892. Before moving in, he redecorated the house completely, built a new
billiards room and moved the existing pathway as far away from the house as
possible. Before the coming of the motor car, his home's newly enlarged stables
contained at least three pairs of fast carriage horses, of which he was proud.
He was driven to his offices in City Road each day, and did not use the nearby
railway.3

Sir Thomas Lipton helped medical voluntary organizations during World War I.
He gave to disposal his yachts to Red Cross, Scottish Women's Hospitals
Committee, Serbian Supporting Fund etc. for transport of medical volunteers
(doctors and nurses) same as medical supply. During the winter 1914-1915 and
spring 1915 in Serbia was several British i.e. Commonwealth hospital teams
working together with Serbian military and civil doctors and nurses. He was
very popular at the people due to his modest requests. He asked only for modest
lodging, requested for meals only what common people eat in these war
conditions. He liked to pose with Serbian officers and soldiers at photographs.
Except he visited many hospitals encouraging doctors, nurses and soldiers, he
found time to visit traditional fairs, to take a part in blackberry gathering and
fishing. Sir Thomas Lipton was declared for the honor citizen of the town of
Niš.
A portrait of Lipton appeared on the cover of Time magazine on November 3,
1924.4

3
Newby, Herbert (1949). "Old" Southgate. T.Grove
4
Time magazine
THE POWER OF ADVERTISING
It was with stunts and advertising that Lipton was to make his mark. He
employed the talents of Willie Lockhart, a
leading cartoonist of the day, to produce weekly
posters for him.

Lipton subsequently took to buying pigs in the

market, tying ribbons to their tails, and having
them driven through the streets under a banner which declared them to be
"Lipton's Orphans". Each day the pigs were driven to his shop by a different
route, bringing in new customers.

The opening for each new Lipton shop was cause for newspaper adverts,
posters and parades. Lipton himself would be at each opening to offer prizes to
the first customers. In 1881 Lipton announced that he was to import the world's
largest cheese from New York. Apparently, 800 cows were milked for six days
and the labour of 200 dairymaids was necessary to make this enormous cheese.
The streets were lined with spectators cheering the giant cheese on its way to
Lipton's new store in High Street. When the cheese went on sale, the last piece
was sold within two hours of the store opening. These giant cheeses became
part of Lipton's Christmas displays. One was so large that the manager of
Lipton's shop in Nottingham hired an elephant from the local circus to transport
it through the town.
By 1890 Lipton was a very rich and successful man. He remarked, later in life,
that the only politics he had were to open a new shop every week.
THE LEGACY

Sir Thomas Lipton died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Osidge on the 2nd
October 1931. He was 81 years of age and was said to have been planning his
sixth attempt at The America's Cup. He was buried beside his beloved mother
and father in the Southern Necropolis, Glasgow.
The terms of his will were to benefit the city of his birth. £80,000 was left to
establish the Frances Lipton Memorial Fund for the benefit of poor mothers and
their children. His yachting trophies and press cuttings collection were also left
to the city, the former housed at Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, the
latter forming the Sir Thomas J. Lipton Collection at the Mitchell Library. He
left specific bequests to Glasgow hospitals, servants and friends. His London
house, Osidge, became The Sir Thomas Lipton Memorial Hospital for Retired
Nurses in memory of his mother. The residue of his estate was to be used by his
trustees for the benefit of the poor in Glasgow. In 1937, six years after Lipton's
death, a High Court order allowed his trustees to sell his interests with the
proceeds going to the Lipton Trust for the benefit of the poor in Glasgow.
By 1946, when the last payment was made, The Lipton trust had donated a total
of £821,000 to the City. The Lipton brand, now owned by Unilever, is still
going strong.
CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION
2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3. HYPOTHESIS
4. PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD
5. GROCER AND LIPTON’S TEA
6. SPORTSMAN
7. PERSONAL LIFE
8. THE POWER OF ADVERTISING
9. THE LEGACY
 BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFRENCES

1. Glasgow Guide: Glasgow Info: Famous Glaswegians: Sir Thomas

Lipton at www.glasgowguide.co.uk
2. “Players of the Game”; Charles E. Nicholson. Designer of Shamrock
V. A Builder of Yachts. Designed Famous Schooner.
3. Newby, Herbert (1949). "Old" Southgate. T.Grove
4. Lipton, T.J. Leaves from the Lipton Logs. London: Hutichison & Co.
(Publishers) LTD. Crampsey, B. 1985. The King's Grocer: The Life of Sir
Thomas Lipton. Glasgow: Glasgow City Council