Adventures of a Serial Entrepreneur

Gulbenkian and Chester Beatty in Dublin

For nearly 300 years, the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) has been stimulating economic and cultural activities in Ireland. The RDS is internationally known for showjumping, notably the Dublin International Horse Show. The Horse Show has evolved from the 1868 Show, one of the earliest 'leaping' competitions ever held.

The RDS has an excellent archives library, and a friend and historian, John Holahan, suggested the RDS library could be an excellent resource for researching the 'Clash of Giants'.

So, John and I met the Society's Head Librarian Gerard Whelan. Gerard was aware of my interest in Gulbenkian and had produced from the archives a letter to the Society from Calouste's son, Nubar. The letter was typewritten on the official notepaper of the Persian legation to the United Kingdom. It was dated 1 September 1948. In it, Nubar thanked the Secretary of the Society for the welcome he had received at the Horse Show where everyone treated him well. He also enquired about making a donation or a subscription as a small token of his appreciation.

Known as the Armenian 'who hunted with an orchid in his buttonhole' he had taken up serious hunting from about 1930 mostly with the Whaddon Chase. He estimated that he has hunted on almost 2000 days until he was past 70.

This letter underlined his commitment to the sport which brought him to Dublin to enjoy a World-class show jumping event which probably explains his repeated visits later after the Gulbenkian friend Sir Alfred Chester Beatty retired there.

Nubar had known Chester Beatty since about 1925 when Calouste was heavily involved in opposing the malpractice of Shell Oil in their dealings with the Venezuela Oil Company (V OC). He had also been a Board member of Beatty's investment company Selection Trust when it was negotiating for Russian mineral deposits.

Calouste had met Beatty in the city where as a powerful if low profile financier he had worked with him as an adviser, a broker and a fellow investor. Owners of such vast wealth inevitably met through common interests with banks and brokers and joint investments. They were both mentioned as part-financing Cezar Ritz's eponymous hotel in Paris, an investment that Gulbenkian levered to retain a private suite for his lifetime.

There is evidence that Beatty found Gulbenkian a financial adviser whose tips invariably made money for his investment company, Selection Trust.

The merchant bank, Cull & Co was a mutual contact with many shared interests.

One of Gulbenkian's assets was his international reputation as the go-to man for any new oil venture. This resulted in his opening up the Venezuelan oil industry to the world with many profitable opportunities. Typically, he brought Beatty with him into a very productive oil well in the Gulf of Maracaibo where Gulbenkian had introduced Royal Dutch Shell as the lead investor. The story is told in my book, which recounts how Henri Deterding, the boss of Shell, having made a significant capital gain notoriously continued to milk the captive company. It was both Beatty and Cull Bank who advised Gulbenkian not to engage in a shareholders' revolt against Shell. It was a memorable occasion when Rothschild tried to induce Beatty to vote his substantial shareholding on their side in a Special General Meeting. The event had an interesting and typically Gulbenkian ending.

The two investors again combined their vast resources in 1924 in an unusual entrepreneurial venture.

Author's note: In my next book, 'The Adventures of a Serial Entrepreneur', I argue that Gulbenkian was not an entrepreneur, and this was an exception.

The pair attempted to form a major international oil corporation which could stand shoulder to shoulder alongside Standard and Royal Dutch. With significant equity interests in the Tidewater Company in the USA, his many interests in Venezuela and others, he conceived a typical labyrinthine grouping which would bring the sizeable Russian oil interests in an exclusive arrangement into the conglomerate.

From 1925 through 1927 he negotiated patiently with Georjig Pjatakov, head of the Supreme People's Economy Council. The Russian State urgently needed funds and were liquidating many of their assets to bolster their financial stability. These included the art treasures of the Heritage Museum which will be referred to elsewhere. Negotiations about oil continued until 1928 when the pair made a final offer which was brought by Pjatakopf to Moscow. Leaders in the unstable Soviet republic were distrustful and jealous of each other. Stalin had worked in the oil fields in Baku, had been involved in civil unrest there where he stole a printing press. He was ruthless in eliminating potential competitors, and Pjatakov had been a leading Trotskyite. Unsurprisingly he soon disappeared, the offer was rejected, and the grand plan failed.

Beatty had gone along with Gulbenkian on the mammoth undertaking as he knew they would make money whatever transpired.

His son, Chester Beatty Junior had bought a residence in Co Kildare in 1948 and on his first visit his father rediscovered his Irish roots as both his paternal grandparents were born in Ireland. In 1950 aged 75 he appointed his son to be CEO of Selection Trust and retired to live in a beautiful Victorian mansion in Ailesbury Road, Ballsbridge. He also settled his vast collection in Dublin which he donated to the Irish nation.

As he had always loved horses and racing, it was not surprising that he bought a large 160-acre farm near the village of Ashford Co Wicklow. He liked to spend his summers in Ireland, and Clonmannon became a popular venue for picnics and barbecues, which he varied from formal to spontaneous events.

Part of his development was a lovely equestrian centre with paddocks and gallops by the sea which became popular with trainers and jockeys.

The well-remembered Peter O'Sullivan recalled the idyllic situation in his book, 'Calling the Horses- a racing autobiography': " I drove into the Wicklow hills towards Clonmannon where in the 60s, Paddy Prendergast would take his top horses to the marvellous gallops which ran parallel to the sea and to the old railway track on Sir Chester Beatty's estate. Paddy would make a great day out for the horses by allowing them a dip in the sea and rolling in the sand after work.

Sir Chester Beatty's memory is alive and well in Ireland. The fantastic collection is securely preserved in the fortified Dublin Castle. The collection is so large that only a small selection is on display at any one time. The staff work diligently to vary the exhibitions enabling the public to enjoy as much as possible.