John Holt

Who was John Holt?

John Holt was an English merchant, who founded a shipping line operating between Liverpool and West Africa, and a number of businesses in Nigeria, which are now incorporated in John Holt plc.

Holt was born in Garthorpe, Lincolnshire in 1841. In 1862, with £27 in his pocket, he sailed from Liverpool to take up an appointment as a shop assistant in a grocery store in Fernando Po. Five years later, he bought out his employer, and he was joined by his brother Jonathan, and the two brothers expanded their business interests in West Africa, forming a partnership, John Holt and Company, in 1884, and a company, John Holt & Co. Ltd, in 1897.

In 1910 he retired to his home at Broughton Grange, Lincolnshire, where he died in 1915.