Bernhard Baron

Who was Bernhard Baron?

Bernhard Baron was a tobacco manufacturer and philanthropist. He was born at Brest-Litovsk, in poor circumstances, to Jewish parents, and brought up among the Don Cossacks at Rostov. His father took him to the United States when young; and there, after working at a tobacco factory, he began making the newly popularised cigarettes by hand. He invented a cigarette-making machine which he brought back to England and sold for £160,000. With this money he bought the tobacco business of Mme. Carrera in 1903.

In the later years of his life, he engaged in charity on a grand scale, contributing over three-quarters of a million pounds to hospitals, as well as endowing a trust for the benefit of hospital and asylum patients. Despite these activities, his fortune, on his death at Brighton, amounted to £5 millions. His son Louis Baron was created a Baronet in 1930.

Amongst the projects supported by the Trust was a cradle-to-grave school in Henriques Street, London E1. With a capacity of over a thousand pupils it provided everything from kindergarten to adult-literacy. The school, at 71 Henriques Street, still stands but has been converted to flats.