Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1919-10-09
KNIGHT IN 1908
is NOW PAUPER
PitifM Ending of Career OF Sir
Luke White, Once Member
of Parliament.
BANKRUPT AND A WRECK
Some of His Poor Constituents Lost
Their All by Intrusting 1t to Him
War Makes Financial
Distress Known.

London-From a position Of afflu-
ence, popularity and public service
which won him q seat in parliament
and knighthood, Sir Luke White is
ending his days as the inmate of
workhousc infirmary in Driffield. CleV-
er enough to rise from poverty to a
noted career, injudicious investments
brought him low, and at the height OF
his political power he was forced TO
confess himself bankrupt. He carried
down with him numerous trusting con-
stituents, and his liabilities OF $780,
900 included $4,000 in loans from
poor people who had confided their all
to him. The shame of having thus
wrecked the savings of those who be-
ueved in him completely unnerved
him. Now he is dependent on public
charity, his spirit utterly crushed, and
he is one of the most pitiful figures in
the north of England.
Began as Office Boy.
Born in leighton, near York, IN
1916, he was an office boy at fifteen
for a solicitor who paid him about w
cents a week. After eight years in
that service, of course with increasing
income, he became managing clerk for
another solicitor in Driffield. In an
other six years he was admitted to
the bar as solicitor, and in the same
year he succeeded to the practice OF
his employer, who had died.
He speedily became known as
local preacher and speaker for large
district, and he was highly popular
and successful. For years he was
chairman Of the local board, and then
of the urban district council. Then he
went to the East Riding county coun-
Gil. In 1896 he was appointed one Of
the coroners for East Riding. He act
ed as election agent for Sir Angus
Holden, Liberal member of parlia"
ment for the Buckrose division, and
when Sir Angus died in 1900 White
was chosen as his successor. In 1908
he was knighted
He continued to divide his time be-
tween his attendance at Westminster
and his business in Yorkshire, but as
he gave more time to his parliament
airy duties than to his private affairs,
his practice suffered. The war brought
out the fact that he was in financial
distress, and last fall he resigned his
seat and filed a petition in bankruptcy.
It appeared in the bankruptcy pro-
ceedings that some of his poor con-
stituents had cOnfided their money to
him to put into war loans.
Popular For Years.
Friends provided for him for
awhile in a sanitarium near Scar
borough. When that fund was ex-
hausted he was removed to the work
house infirmary, which almost adjoins
the court in which he formerly prac-
tised. His tragic misfortune caused
great sensation in East Yorkshire;
where for years he had been so well
known and liked that in the town of
Bridlington particularly his photo
graph hung on the walls of every
other house. He had been eminently a
poor mans lawyer.
His fate is now brought afresh to
public notice by an action against
Herbert Brown, deputy coroner for
the East Riding of Yorkshire who is
charged, jointly with Sir Luke. with
having appropriated to the personal
use of Sir Luke in 1907 $1,000 intrust-
ed to them by Witham Hatfield for in
vestment Sir Luke escapes arraign-
ment owing to his physical and ner-
vous collapse.