1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maple, Sir John Blundell

MAPLE, SIR JOHN BLUNDELL, Bart. (1845–1903), English business magnate, was born on the 1st of March 1845. His father, John Maple (d. 1900), had a small furniture shop in Tottenham Court Road, London, and his business began to develop about the time that his son entered it. The practical management soon devolved on the younger Maple, under whom it attained colossal dimensions. The firm became a limited liability company, with a capital of two millions, in 1890, with Mr Maple as chairman. He entered parliament as Conservative member for Dulwich in 1887, was knighted in 1892, and was made a baronet in 1897. He was the owner of a large stud of race-horses, and from 1885 onwards won many important races, appearing at first under the name of “Mr Childwick.” His public benefactions included a hospital and a recreation ground to the city of St Albans, near which his residence, Childwickbury, was situated, and the rebuilding, at a cost of more than £150,000, of University College Hospital, London. He died on the 24th of November 1903. His only surviving daughter married in 1896 Baron von Eckhardstein, of the German Embassy.