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His gamble and hard work paid off. He saved up enough money in 1911 to open a store in Bourke St, Melbourne, which we now know as Myer's.

As a result he became very wealthy. But he also give money back to the community. When the Depression hit Australia in the 1930s, Myer spent a fortune in construction to give men work. One project he paid for was the extension of the Yarra Boulevard. He also held a Christmas party for 10,000 in need.

All through his life, he gave to charity, believing we all win when we care for our community. Melbourne's Myer Music Bowl is only one of his gifts to Victoria. Over his life he gave away about $160 million (in today's $).

Lee Neil's Christian influence on Sidney Myer

Unassertive, modest and famously temperate, (Edwin) Lee Neil was held in hugely high regard. Much about the man can be gleaned from Ambrose Pratt's biography of Sidney Myer, with whose life Lee Neil's was inextricably woven. In what turns out to be a wonderfully moving story of abiding love and respect between the reserved and quietly spoken Scot with an “abnormal faculty of self-control” and leading light in the Anglican church; and the ebullient and ambitious Russian Jew, forging his way into the business establishment of Melbourne with his purchase and expansion of the Burke Street drapery store previously part-owned by Lee Neil's family.

There is no question that Lee Neil's example - his faith informed every facet of his life - had a profound impact on Sidney Myer, leading towards Sidney's conversion and baptism and his practice of strong Christian ethics in business.

Sidney Myer's big-heartedness and generosity, admirable if not legendary in his lifetime, continue to this day in the Sidney Myer fund, but note this: “When he died suddenly in 1934 at 55, Sidney Myer was still a millionaire. He had given more than a million pounds to community projects and left one-tenth of all he possessed to charity and culture. At the time of his death, he was in the very act of giving a large sum to the Wesley Central Mission in Melbourne and was preparing to endow the Anglican Church with one hundred thousand pounds for the farm training of indigent youths” (p159).

Lee Neil became a managing partner of Myer, holding complete authority over internal administration and financial matters. Pratt says: “It has been said that the history of Sidney Myer is the history of Sidney Myer and Lee Neil, two men who were each complementary to the other” (p125).

Lee Neil was also the founding president of Melbourne Bible Institute (now Bible College of Victoria), serving from 1920 until his death in 1934, three months after Sidney Myer. MBI's principal at that time, widely regarded as a spiritual and intellectual giant of his day, was the Rev C. H. Nash, who wrote of Neil's death: "Our friendship is too sacred for discussion. For me it has been the most formative, inspiring and protective influence in the latter half of my lifetime" (notes delivered at funeral).

Research by Morag Zwartz
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