Peter de Savary, entrepreneur and hotelier, dies aged 78

Entrepreneur Peter de Savary passed away on Sunday (30 October), at the age of 78, following a remarkable career that spanned six decades and four continents.

De Savary made his first fortune after establishing an import/export business in Nigeria and would go on to pursue a number of other enterprises before turning his hand to hospitality. He opened the first St James’s Club in London in 1979, noticing a gap in the market for small, personal hotels and built up the worldwide chain with venues in Antigua, Paris, Los Angeles, and New York.

He sold the chain in the late 1980s for more than £56.6m and set about restoring Skibo Castle in Scotland. This became the first Carnegie Club property when it reopened in 1995 after a five-year revamp, and was sold eight years later to a group of members for £27m.

De Savary was also responsible for the regeneration of industrial land in the US and UK. His vision created more than 60 hotels, resorts and hospitality projects, including seven championship golf courses and three world-class marinas.

The Havana West portfolio of boutique hotels he created and ran with his wide Lana, include the Beachcroft hotel in Bognor Regis, West Sussex; his famous beach huts at the Cary Arms and Spa in Torquay, Devon; the Eastbury hotel in Sherborne, Dorset; the Merry Harriers in Surrey; and the Parkway Hotel and Spa in Cwmbran, Torfaen.

Outside of the hospitality industry, De Savary was a keen yachtsman, who led the British challenge for the America’s Cup in 1983. He was also involved in many charities, including being a patron and board member of the British Teenage Cancer Trust and founding the Victory Trust in 1983 to help underprivileged and handicapped children.

His wife Lana said: “Peter was extraordinary, not just as a businessman but as a wonderful mentor, loving husband and devoted father of his five daughters. He was a remarkable man, and an enormous gap will be left in our lives without him.”