Fraudster who lives on in fiction
ALBERT GRANT (1831-1899), MP, financier and fraudster, was born in Dublin, son of a Jewish immigrant. Educated in London and Paris, he formed the Mercantile Discount Company in London, but it failed. He then formed other companies, amalgamating them in 1864 and beginning a series of share promotions. During the frantic share market of 1862-66 his company promoted 11 flotations, all resulting in legal disputes. Most of the shares he promoted gave minimal returns, and his investors suffered huge losses. His company dissolved itself in 1866.
In 1868 King Victor Emmanuel of Italy made him a baron for helping to finance Milan’s Victor Emmanuel art gallery. Grant next formed a company of private bankers with his brother Maurice. They promoted 19 companies during the 1870s, most of which caused controversy. Numerous legal actions were taken against him, and by mid 1877 89 cases were pending. These eroded all his money. Grant worked as a banker until 1888, but he was constantly engaged in legal cases, and had to sell his possessions and property.
He was returned as a “liberal-conservative” MP for Kidderminster in 1865, retiring in 1868. He won the same seat in 1874 but was found to have bribed council members and voters, and his election was declared void.
His philanthropic works were seen as attempts at respectability. Pursued in the courts to the end, he died at home in Sussex. He married Emily Skeffington-Robinson in 1856. It is believed that the character of Augustus Melmotte in Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now(1875) was based on him.
Adapted from the Royal Irish Academy's Dictionary of Irish Biography. See dib.ie
