Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/499

 12 s. vii. NOV. 20, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

411

BENZON : CELEBRATED GAMBLER,

(12 S. vii. 349.)

HENRY ERNST SCHLESINGER BENZON (not Benson), "the Jubilee Plunger " was the son of Mr. Edmund Benzon, head of the firm of Nayler, Benzon & Co., metal mer- chants, of Birmingham. His father left him 250,OOOZ., of which he obtained control when he came of age in 1885-6. He had been very strictly brought up, but he soon became a fine example of the prodigal son. He developed a passion for gambling : he not only betted on races, but on cards, dominoes, anything. It was his cheerful habit if he met an acquaintance in a bar to produce a sovereign and to insist on tossing for it. It was in 1887, the year of the first Jubilee, that he became specially famous, by|reason of his heavy bets on the turf which frequently disorganized the market. This led to his nickname of "the Jubilee Plunger," which was shortened to "the Jubilee," and became so familiar that all ' his acquaintances addressed him simply .as "Jubilee," as though it were a baptismal name. He was a prominent member of the old Pelican and the Gardenia Clubs, where he gave and gambled away his money with a freedom that was really a mania. He delighted like a child in the sensation he -was creating in the sporting press, and used to keep a scrap-book with all his "press notices " like an actor. Finally, he ap- peared in Vanity Fair, drawn, I think, by "Spy." The cartoon shows him a tall slim young man with Hebraic features, striped shirt, and a generally over-dressed appear- ance. His rooms were full of clothes and jewellery, and it was said that he had hun- dreds of collars and ties and scores of suits. At last the smash came, and the " Jubilee Plunger" was generally nicknamed "The Jubilee Juggins " :.he was ruined. His first step was to put his name to a book which somebody else wrote entitled 'How I Lost 250,000 in Two Years.' I do not know "the publisher's name, but as it had a large sale, it ought to be obtainable through any -secondhand bookseller. After all his clothes were sold off, Benzon was left with an income of about 4:001. a year derived from an estate in the hands of trustees, of which he was Tunable to touch the principal. In spite of

this restriction he was afterwards twice bankrupt. He lived chiefly on the Conti- nent, but for the last five years of his life was a patient in a nursing home in this country suffering from brain trouble. He died on July 13, 1911.

R. S. PENGELLY. 12 Poynders Road, Clapham Park, S.VV.

Ernest Schlesinger Benzon (not Benson) was born on Apr. 14, 1866. His father's original name was Schlesinger, a man of Hebrew descent who came from Hamburg. He manufactured iron in the Midlands, accumulated a large fortune, and, cherish- ing a tradition that his family descended from the Benzonis, he adopted the name of Benzon. He had one son, Ernest, who before attaining his majority, took a trip to Australia, and lost considerable sums, about 25,OOOZ., on the turf there, for which he gave bills of exchange at usurious rates, redeemable when he came of age in 1887, when he inherited about a quarter of a million of money. All this he dissipated in two years in stupendous stakes on horse racing, baccarat, billiards and pigeon shoot- ing. He won 16,000/. when Bendigo secured the Jubilee stakes at Kempton Park which obtained for him the patronymic of the "Jubilee Plunger," though in the later days of his meteoric career he was familiarly known as the "Jubilee Juggins." One of his largest wagers consisted in laying 20,OOOZ. to 16,OOOZ. on Ormonde when he won the historical Hardwicke stakes at Ascot. He had no idea whatever of the value of money, and believed his resources to be unlimited. Towards the end of his life he was frequently without the few shillings necessary to pay for a meal. But he was possessed of courtly and pleasant manners, generous to a fault, and squandered thousands on the satellites who preyed upon him. In short he had no enemy but him- self. He was extravagant in dress and, to the best of rny recollection, was one of the first to make brown leather footwear fashionable. In the end his mentality became deranged, and he died in obscurity in a nursing home in December, 1911, in his 46th year. In 1890 he was sentenced to three months' imprisonment by the Nice tribunal for passing worthless cheques.

His career is partly chronicled in a autobiography entitled ' How I lost 250,OOOL in Two Years,' published by Trischler & Co. of 18 New Bridge Street some thirty years ago, which was embellished by a capital