First published in 1968, the original blurb reads: "Sir Halley Stewart’s last ambition was to reach his hundredth birthday, as the final distinction of a life full of achievement, starting from boyhood as one of the fourteen children of a poor Dissenting minister. But he had barely entered his hundredth year when he died at Harpenden in January 1937.
In 1932 he was the second oldest man ever to be knighted in Britain. He made two fortunes and left almost all his wealth to a trust with a Christian foundation and the aim of promoting pioneer research. He was a preacher, politician, industrialist, and public benefactor, and gave his name to Stewartby, the world’s greatest centre of brick-making.
In the story of this Grand Old Man, whose political passions were set aflame by Gladstone himself and whose religious convictions were first caught from a tough but much revered father, David Newton has not been content to chronicle the events of ninety-nine significant years. He has preferred to picture the personal characteristics of Halley Stewart in their development against the family and contemporary background that stretches almost from Napoleon to Hitler.
With his hardy Scottish blood and his staunch independence; with financial genius co-existing with dislike of personal riches and practical concern for the under privileged; with firm convictions and strong faith fortified by boundless physical energy and intellectual power, Halley Stewart’s character was indeed – and is still – an inspiration.
Mr Newton’s careful, intimate and lively study makes a charming family record, but pre-eminently it shows the man at close quarters, laughing and mourning, fighting and planning, longing and enthusing, working and triumphing: a portrait in which a past age comes to life again, and old principles which once made men uncommon are quickened anew for us who live in a more common age."
This book is a re-issue originally published in 1968. The language used and views portrayed are a reflection of its era and no offence is meant by the Publishers to any reader by this re-publication.