Lewy Miall Pattinson (10 March 1852January 1944) was an English businessman, who founded the pharmaceutical firm

Soul Patts Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Company Limited, trading as Soul Patts, is a publicly listed Australian investment company. History In 1872, Caleb Soul and his son Washington Handley opened a pharmacy store in Pitt Street, Sydney. In 1886, Lew ...

Early life and immigration from England

Lewy Miall Pattinson was born to parents Wiliam Pattinson and Annie Sinclair on 10 March 1852 in

Hexham Hexham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, on the south bank of the River Tyne, formed by the confluence of the North Tyne and the South Tyne at Warden nearby, and close to Hadrian's Wall. Hexham was the administra ...

, England. He had three siblings William, Matthew and Annie. Pattinson married Mary Jane Parker in July 1887 in

Tynemouth Tynemouth () is a coastal town in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located on the north side of the mouth of the River Tyne, England, River Tyne, hence its name. It is east-northeast of Newcastle up ...

, England. Pattinson had a background in engineering with the family company Pattinson and Davison, but later gained exposure to the pharmaceutical industry through his brother William, which led him to explore opportunities in this field in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia which he visited in 1881. He bought "Hexham" at Abbotsford in 1900.

Founder of Washington H. Soul Pattinson

Pattinson returned to Australia for good in 1886 and opened a pharmacy in Balmain known as Pattinson and Co. The firm expanded to include stores in Redfern and

North Sydney North Sydney is a suburb and commercial district on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. And is the administrative centre for the local government area of North Sydney Council. History The Indigenous people on the s ...

, and its own in-house manufacturing and distribution facilities. In 1902 Pattinson & Company bought out his competitor W. H. Soul to expand the business further. The firm was listed on the

Australian Stock Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd (ASX) is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as, ...

in 1903 and is Australia's second oldest

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

. Today it is a diversified conglomerate with investments in pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, minerals and financial services. Pitt st mall and center point tower

Death

In 1944 Lewy Pattinson died aged 91. He was succeeded by his four children William, Mary, Jenny-Ann and Lewy-Norman, and 12 grandchildren. Pattinson's son Dr.

William Frederick Pattinson William Frederick Pattinson (1889–1970) was an Australian medical doctor and businessman, and chairman of Soul Patts and Choiseul Investments. Pattinson was the eldest son of businessman Lewy Pattinson and grew up in Balmain. After returnin ...

succeeded him as chairman of

. His grandson,

Jim Millner James Sinclair Millner (29 November 1919 – 24 January 2007) was an Australian corporate executive. He was head of many large organisations including chairman of the NRMA, Soul Patts, New Hope Group, Brickworks, Choiseul Investments, Queensland ...

and great grandson,

Robert Millner Robert Dobson Millner (born 4 September 1950) is an Australian corporate executive. He is the chairman of Soul Patts, Australia's second oldest publicly-listed corporation, and the chairman of New Hope Group, Brickworks, Choiseul Investments ...

, were subsequently chairmen of the company.

Philanthropy

Lewy Pattinson was known for his community and charitable donations. He donated the L. M. Pattinson Aerial Ambulance which was the first aeroplane in the

Royal Flying Doctor Service The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), commonly known as the Flying Doctor, is an aeromedical retrieval service in Australia and the largest of its kind in the world. It is a non-profit organisation that provides urgent and emergency medica ...

. The Lewy Miall Pattinson Scholarship was founded in 1943 by a gift of £5000 from Pattinson and supplemented by a bequest of an additional sum of £5,000 on his death in January 1944, for the encouragement of the study of pharmaceutical science at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

. There is a street named - Pattinson Crescent - in the suburb of

Flynn, Australian Capital Territory Flynn is a suburb in the Belconnen district of Canberra, located within the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. The suburb is named after John Flynn, who was a Presbyterian minister and missionary who was mainly responsible for the formati ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pattinson, Lew 1852 births 1944 deaths Australian businesspeople British businesspeople People from Hexham