ABSTRACT
A way out was presented by two chance meetings. On Brighton pier, Clarence met his future wife, Dolly, who was selling postcards. They married quickly, falsifying their dates of birth as they were not yet 21. He then met Deighton Patmore, an insurance broker who was frustrated because he could not see how to take advantage of an opportunity to sell life insurance to young men who wanted to borrow money against their expectations of an inheritance. Hatry showed him how to do this and helped him create a thriving business. In short order, Hatry and Patmore became the ‘go-to’ brokers for impecunious members of the jeunesse dorée who wanted to arrange a loan. Hatry then devised an insurance policy for emigrants to the USA, providing cover against the possibility of being denied entry on arrival at Ellis Island. With a chain of agents selling the policy throughout Eastern Europe, Hatry had created a second business which proved profitable: at least until the onset of war in 1914 brought an end to mass emigration.
