They built an empire of glitzy hotels and made many millions in shipping and retail before plunging into the world of newspapers but largely eschewed the trappings of life in the London fast lane to live in strange isolation in a sprawling mansion on a small rocky island just off the French coast.
David, believed to be the driving force behind the newspapers side of the business, died aged 86 two years ago, so is spared the indignity of the family losing control of the Telegraph titles.
The twins were born in 1934 in Hammersmith, Frederick 10 minutes before David. Their father, also Frederick, died when the twins were 12; at 16 they got a taste for finance in the accounts department of the General Electric Company, but soon left to become painters and decorators. They flourished, establishing an estate agency, Hillgate, in the 1960s.
The pair began to invest in boarding houses, grabbed three London railway hotels sold off at privatisation and ultimately, in 1985, acquired their most glittering property prize, the Ritz. As well as the hotels, they invested aggressively in the shipping and retail industries and by 2020 the Sunday Times rich list estimated their wealth at £7bn.
This story is from the June 08, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the June 08, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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