January 18, 2004 Sir David Barclay poses after receiving their
knighthoods from the Queen at Buckingham Palace. MICHAEL STEPHENS /
AFP FILES / AFP
David Barclay, the secretive British billionaire whose
portfolio included The Daily Telegraph newspaper and The Ritz
hotel, has died aged 86 after a short illness, his newspaper
reported Wednesday.
Barclay and his twin Frederick, described by the daily as
“identical in appearance, lifestyle and often even in dress”, built
a vast business empire from shipping to retail.
“The Barclay brothers operated as one throughout their active
business career while doing their utmost to avoid personal
publicity and discourage media scrutiny,” the broadsheet added.
Among those paying tribute to David Barclay was a former
employee, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who made his name on the
newspaper as a Brussels-bashing Europe correspondent, and later a
columnist.
“Farewell with respect and admiration to Sir David Barclay who
rescued a great newspaper created many thousands of jobs across the
UK and who believed passionately in the independence of this
country and what it could achieve,” Johnson tweeted.
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The Barclay brothers entered the media industry in 1992 when
they bought The European, a weekly newspaper launched two years
earlier by the media magnate Robert Maxwell.
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They later bought The Scotsman daily before finally realising
their ambition of owning Conservative bastion The Daily Telegraph
in 2004.
January 18, 2004 Sir David Barclay (L) and his twin brother Sir
Frederick pose after receiving their knighthoods from the Queen at
Buckingham Palace. MICHAEL STEPHENS / AFP FILES / AFP
The brothers, long advocates of small government and low taxes,
were strong supporters of former British prime minister Margaret
Thatcher, putting her up in their plush Ritz in London during her
final days.
They were born into a large working-class Scottish family in
London in 1934 and left school at 14 to pursue their joint business
ambitions, making their names initially in the property market.
“They are very effective stealth buyers,” one financier told the
Telegraph. “They come out of nowhere and move quickly.”
The brothers, based on the Channel Island of Sark, became
embroiled in a rare public row last year over the sale of The Ritz
to a brother-in-law of the ruler of Qatar, which ended up in
court.
They were knighted in 2000, kneeling side by side before Queen
Elizabeth II in the first double knighthood ceremony in the modern
era.
David Barclay, who died on Sunday, was married twice and leaves
behind four sons.
AFP
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