Ralli Brothers

Zeus (1793–1865), Toumazis (1799–1858), and Eustratios (1800–84), founded Ralli Brothers, perhaps the most successful expatriate Greek merchant business of the Victorian era.

Born to a wealthy merchant family of Chios, their father, Stephanos Ralli (1755–1827), had settled in Marseille, but recognised that the nexus of trading had changed in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars, and sent his eldest son, John, to London to explore business opportunities.

It preceded the turmoil that was about to befall the Ottoman Empire that resulted in the Chios massacre in 1822 and subsequent Greek diaspora, and saw their traditional home markets closed.

They were quick to seize new opportunities created by wars, political events, and the opening of new markets, such as corn, cotton, silk, opium and fruit, rapidly establishing major trading operations across the Mediterranean, Russia, reaching out as far as St Petersburg, Taganrog, Tabriz, Alexandria, Smyrna, and Syria.

From 1851 Ralli Brothers started operations in India with offices in Calcutta and Bombay The business specialised in jute, shellac, sesame, turmeric, ginger, rice, saltpetre, and borax,[2] and employed 4,000 clerks and 15,000 warehousemen and dockers.

1854–1931, Rallis' sojourn in India was extremely successful until the great economic crash of 1929 led them to close down their Indian operations.

Having identified agri-business as its core strength, Rallis India Ltd divested its pharmaceutical business, and decided to consolidate its position in pesticides, fertilizers and seeds.

In late 1960, Sir Isaac Wolfson, of Great Universal Stores, and Harry Recanati, of the Israel Discount Bank, approached the Board of Ralli Brothers.

This led to Sir Isaac Wolfson taking over control of the commercial operations of the firm, in a deal worth £5.5m, a substantial sum at that time.

Ely Fund Managers, the UK private banking business of the Franco-Belgium group, Dexia, in turn, were subsequently absorbed into Rathbones in 2006, for a price of £14.5m.

Perhaps influenced by their families' own experience, they and their descendants were frequent donors to medical charities operating in Eastern Europe and the Balkan wars.

Antonius commissioned the Doric chapel to St Stephen there from John Oldrid Scott, now listed Grade II*.

The hall was sold in 1975 to the Brighton and Hove Jewish Community, who use it for their own activities and make it available for hire to other groups.