Basil Zaharoff
Sir Basil Zaharoff G.C.B., G.B.E., D.C.L. (Hon. Oxon.)
1850 Born
1877 Started selling armaments for the Anglo-Swedish firm of Nordenfelt in Greece
1885 Sold one of the world's first submarines to Greece, he sold two to Turkey in 1886.
His main products in the 1880s and 1890s were quick-firing guns.
1888 Engineered Nordenfelt's merger with the rival company of Hiram Maxim; he then visited Russia to sell the new Maxim machine-gun, and then Chile, Peru, and Brazil in 1888–9.
1897 When Vickers, Sons and Co acquired the Maxim Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Co, he was retained by the new combine and then for the next thirty years acted as their "General Representative for business abroad".
Zaharoff was a mountebank who indulged in self-mystification and encouraged fabulous rumours. He lived sumptuously in Paris (with a famous set of gold dinner plate afterwards sold to King Farouk of Egypt),
1908 He took French citizenship, living sumptuously in Paris, and became a shareholder in the Banque de France, one of several banks with which he was associated.
WWI Helped with the British government to induce neutral Greece to join the allied cause and arranged an armistice with Turkey in 1917.
1918 He was created GBE and GCB in 1919: George V detested him and resented his use of titles, which, as a French citizen, were only honorary.
Established Chairs of Aviation in London, Paris, and Petrograd.
1936 Died in Monte Carlo
See Also
Sources of Information
- Biography of Sir Basil Zaharoff, ODNB