16 Facts About Hugh Wontner

Sir Hugh Walter Kingwell Wontner was an English hotelier and politician.

Hugh Wontner was managing director of the Savoy hotel group from 1941 to 1979 and its chairman from 1948 to 1984, continuing as president until his death.

Hugh Wontner was chairman of the Savoy Theatre from 1948 until his death.

Hugh Wontner shepherded the Savoy hotel group properties through the difficult World War II years, restoring their lustre after the war, and successfully preserved the group's independence against take-over bids in the 1950s, 1970s and 1980s.

Hugh Wontner was the elder son of the actor-manager Arthur Hugh Wontner and his first wife, the actress Rose Pendennis, whose real name was Rosecleer Alice Amelia Blanche, nee Kingwell.

Related searches

Hugh Wontner was born Hugh Walter Kingwell Wontner Smith, but his father changed the family name in 1909, dropping the "Smith".

Hugh Wontner was educated at Oundle School and in France, but was not, he said later, an academic pupil.

When Reeves-Smith died at the age of 77 in May 1941, Rupert D'Oyly Carte, the Savoy chairman, had no doubts about the succession and appointed the 32-year-old Hugh Wontner as managing director of the Savoy group, which included the Berkeley and Claridges hotels as well as the Savoy.

Hugh Wontner remained managing director until 1979 and chairman until 1984.

When Hugh Wontner took over, World War II was at its height, and he and his staff had to cope with bomb damage, food rationing, manpower shortage, and, at first, a serious decline in the number of foreign visitors.

Hugh Wontner co-operated fully with the government's wartime restrictions, helping to draw up an order imposing a five shilling limit on the price of a restaurant meal and advising the government on managing the change from wartime rationing to peacetime conditions.

Hugh Wontner was cautious about expanding the Savoy group internationally, concerned that over-expansion might prejudice standards, but in 1970 he added the Lancaster Hotel in Paris to the group.

Hugh Wontner temporarily transferred possession of the freehold of the Berkeley from the Savoy group to its staff pension fund until the bid was withdrawn.

Hugh Wontner advised the royal household on its catering at Buckingham Palace and elsewhere, and in 1953 was appointed Clerk of the Royal Kitchens – the first holder of the post since the early nineteenth century.

Hugh Wontner inherited his father's love of the theatre and served as a member of the board of trustees of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and of the committee of the Barbican Centre.

Hugh Wontner was proud of being a member of the Old Stagers, England's oldest amateur dramatic society, and of his association with the Savoy Theatre, of which he was chairman and managing director from 1948 until his death.