Sir John Reeves Ellerman, 2nd Baronet (21 December 1909 – 17 July 1973) was an English shipowner, natural historian and philanthropist.
The only son and heir of the English shipowner and investor John Ellerman, he was often said to be Britain's richest man.
John Reeves Ellerman was educated at Malvern College, where as a teenager he wrote an anti-sport novel, Why Do They Like It?, under the pseudonym E. L.
He also undertook various philanthropies and helped Jewish refugees to escape Nazi rule in Germany (his grandfather's homeland), earning the wrath of William Joyce ("Lord Haw-Haw") who attacked him by name in his propaganda broadcasts, incorrectly claiming that he was of Jewish descent.
[1] Upon his death, he left £53 million (equivalent to £813,238,448 in 2023[4]), the largest will ever proved in the UK at the time.