Stuart Wheeler

John Stuart Wheeler (30 January 193523 July 2020) was a British financier, gambler and political activist. He made his fortune as the founder of the spread betting firm IG Index in 1974, but was best known for his political activism, being a major donor to the Conservative Party and treasurer of the UK Independence Party from 2011 to 2014. Early life and career Wheeler was adopted just before his second birthday by an American, Alexander Wheeler, a former Army officer and heir to a banking fortune, and his young wife Betty, daughter of a baronet, Sir John Gibbons. The couple also adopted a little girl, Susan, on the same day. Wheeler spent his early years growing up on the Leighon Estate in Manaton, Devon. He was educated at Eton College. He did his National Service with the Welsh Guards, before studying at Christ Church, Oxford, from where he graduated with a second-class degree in law. He practised law as a barrister, before becoming an investment banker. However, Wheeler found his niche through IG Index, which pioneered spread betting. Originally, the company was launched to allow Britons to speculate on gold, when foreign exchange controls made it exorbitantly expensive to actually buy it.