Arthur Elvin

Sir Arthur 'Ginger' Elvin MBE (born 5 July 1899 Norwich, England - 4 February 1957) was the son of a Norwich policeman. He was born in Magpie Road, Norwich. Elvin left school at the age of fourteen. After a few different jobs, including as a soap salesman in Aldgate, he joined the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) during the First World War, aged 17. Flying as an observer Elvin was shot down over France and was held as a prisoner of war for two years, despite at least one escape attempt. He later said that one of the reasons for his recapture was that he could not swim, and that this had made him determined to construct a public swimming pool.

After the war Elvin was employed by the Ministry of Munitions to salvage the metal in artillery shells in France, supervising, in his words, "hundreds of workmen of all nationalities.” Back in England, Elvin ran out of money and in 1924 was offered a job working in a cigarette kiosk at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park, Wembley, by a charity for distressed ex-officers. Working at the Exhibition changed Elvin’s life.

Elvin died at sea whilst on a trip to South Africa and was buried at sea. Despite his success he never lost his Norwich accent.

Between 1976 and 2006 his name was commemorated through the naming of Elvin House, a futuristic triangular office block.

After working in a British Empire Exhibition cigarette kiosk in 1924, in 1925 Elvin decided to buy his own shops within the grounds. He procured eight for a total of £100. By the end of the Exhibition he had made over £1000 profit from his shops. He also met his future wife at the Exhibition. She was Jennie Harding, who was managing the jewellery section of the Palace of Industry.

No one had planned what to do with the Exhibition buildings after the Exhibition was over. After it closed a buildings entrepreneur and gambler called James White bought the buildings as a job lot for £300,000 and contracted Elvin to clear the site. Elvin bought the derelict buildings one by one and sold off the scrap. He also sold and moved entire structures elsewhere (for example, the Sierra Leone pavilion became a restaurant in Tranmore, County Waterford, and the New Zealand pavilion became a dance hall in London).

Most importantly, Elvin saw potential in the Empire Stadium. The Stadium went into liquidation at the end of the Exhibition after it was pronounced "financially unviable". The original plan was to demolish the stadium at the end of the Exhibition, but it was saved at the suggestion of Sir James Stevenson, a Scot who was chairman of the organising committee for the Empire Exhibition.

...
Wikipedia