Peter de Savary, 76, is best known for owning celeb haunt the St James’s Club’s in London, LA and Paris throughout the 1970s
Millionaire Peter de Savary, the son of a French-born Essex farmer, is an entrepreneur and a former Chairman of Millwall FC with an estimated net worth of £24million in 2013, according to the Independent.
He founded the worldwide St James Clubs in London, Paris, Los Angeles, New York and Antigua and the Carnegie Club at Skibo Castle in Scotland, which was the venue for Madonna and Guy Ritchie’s wedding.
He has also owned Glenborrodale Castle in Scotland, Stapleford Park in England, Cherokee Plantation in South Carolina, Carnegie Abbey in Newport, Rhode Island, Bovey Castle and the Abaco Club in the Bahamas.
De Savary was educated in England at the private Charterhouse School from which he was expelled aged 16. He then moved to Canada where his mother and stepfather lived and did gardening, baby-sitting and children’s private tuition.
His first venture into hospitality was the St James’ Clubs in the late 1970s, in Los Angeles, London, Paris and Antigua, which he sold in the late 1980s to finance the £4million purchase of Skibo Castle.
De Savary built up a large business empire in the 1980s, with property interests including Land’s End and John o’ Groats. But in the economic downturn of the early 1990s his empire collapsed, and he was forced to sell both Land’s End and John o’ Groats in 1991 for an undisclosed sum to the businessman Graham Ferguson Lacey.
He began to concentrate on property development and hotels after 2000, with a number of major country house hotels incorporating golf courses. De Savary’s first such development was The Carnegie Club at Skibo Castle in Scotland.
De Savary bought four properties in Grenada in the Caribbean, where he was developing a marina and resort village.
In 2009, de Savary purchased Vanderbilt Hall, a mansion hotel located in Newport, Rhode Island. He added a small collection of American Illustration artworks to the property from the American Illustrators Gallery, New York, including a piece by Howard Chandler Christy titled ‘Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair’.
De Savary also led the British sailing team in its challenge for the America’s Cup in 1983 but his contender, Victory 83, was beaten by Australia II in the final heat.
He used the motoryacht Kalizma as a support vessel for the America’s Cup races, but has since sold the ship. He also once owned the luxury yacht MY Land’s End.
In November 2005, he succeeded Theo Paphitis as chairman of Millwall Holdings plc and as chairman of Millwall FC. Stewart Till succeeded him in May 2006 as the football club chairman, and de Savary remained as chairman of Millwall Holdings plc until October 2006.