Percy Molteno
| Percy Molteno | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
12 September 1861 Cape Town, South Africa |
| Died | 19 September 1937 (aged 76) Zurich, Switzerland |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Liberal |
| Occupation | Politician, Shipping magnate, Philanthropist |
Percy Alport Molteno (12 September 1861 – 19 September 1937) was a Cape Colony-born lawyer, director of companies, politician and philanthropist who served as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) from 1906 to 1918.
Molteno was born in the Cape Colony, the second son of John Molteno, an Anglo-Italian immigrant who later served as the Cape's first Prime Minister. His father named him in honour of his old friend and business colleague, Percy John Alport. He attended Diocesan College (Bishops), took first place in the Cape matric examination and achieved academic honours at Trinity College, Cambridge, before being called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in London.
After qualifying as a barrister and practising law in the Cape for several years, he moved to Britain to accept a partnership in the firm of Donald Currie & Company, managers of the Castle (later, the Union-Castle) Line, and even married Sir Donald Currie's daughter Elizabeth.
As chairman of the Union Castle Company he oversaw a massive expansion in export shipping lines from southern Africa - eventually, through these shipping lines, controlling the routes of the bulk of southern Africa's foreign trade.
From the beginning, he saw great potential in South Africa’s agricultural exports. His father had undertaken the first experimental export of fruit as a young man in 1841, loading a ship with dried fruit for the Australian market. Percy however, was keenly interested in the possibility of using the new science of refrigeration to allow South African produce to be successfully shipped to the enormous European consumer markets, thereby opening them up for South African exports.
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