British business magnate (b. Jan. 20, 1922, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, Eng.—d. Nov. 1, 2004, Newbury, Berkshire, Eng.), cofounded, with his partner Gordon White (later Lord White of Hull), Hanson PLC and, through a succession of aggressive business takeover deals throughout Britain and the United States, built it into one of the U.K.’s biggest conglomerates. Hanson’s billion-dollar empire earned him the nickname “Lord Moneybags.” He was knighted under Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson in 1976, and he was granted a life peerage in 1983, during the Conservative prime ministership of Margaret Thatcher, of whom Hanson was a loyal supporter.
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