Record

Entry Type	Person
Surname	Gell
Forenames	Philip Lyttelton
Epithet	company director and businessman
Dates	1852-1926
Gender Identity	Male
History	Philip Lyttelton Gell was the son of the Reverend John Philip Gell and his wife Eleanor Franklin, daughter of the polar explorer, Sir John Franklin. He grew up in London and studied at King's College, London, and Balliol College, Oxford, where he made several influential contacts which would greatly aid his career as a businessman. Having initially started training for the bar, he moved into the publishing business, first with Cassell and Co., then at the Clarendon Press, with whom he was British editor for Oxford University Press, 1884-1896. He left publishing and went into the field of South Africna business. He became a company director of the British South Africa Company and became its President, 1920-1923. When he resigned, he became interested in colonial industrial undertakings in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Australia. He was the first chairman of Toynbee Hall, the Universities' Settlement in the East End of London providing charitable services to the poor of the area. He also served as literary executor for Benjamin Howett, Master of Balliol College. In 1889 he married Edith May Brodrick, daughter of the 8th Viscount Midleton. The couple lived in Oxford until 1904, when Philip let Hopton Hall from its owner, Brigadier-General Harry Chandos-Pole-Gell. The Chandos-Pole-Gell family later sold the estate and Philip Lyttelton Gell purchased it in 1920.
Key Events	Born in London, 20 Apr 1852; died at Haven Hill, Kingswear, Devon, 29 May 1926
Authorised Form of Name	Gell; Philip Lyttelton (1852-1926); company director and businessman

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