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Jocelyn Olaf Hambro F/Mc Married: 1942 Ann Silvia Muirc | ||||||||
| Rupert Nicholas Hambro [CFT #5420] Born: 1943 Died: 2021 |
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| d Service of Thanksgiving, St. James's, Piccadilly, 7th Oct. 2021 Rupert Hambro who has died aged 77 was a stylish financial entrepteneur in the fifth generation of one of the city's most illustrious banking dynasty. Hambro had barely passed his 40th birthday in 1983 when he succeeded his cousin Charlie (later Lord Hambro) as chairman of Hambros Bank, founded in London in 1839 by their forebear Carl Joachim Hambro, who came from a merchant family in Copenhagen. Following 'Big Bang' and to avoid board tensions, Rupert, his two younger brothers, Richard and James and their father Jocelyn, the bank's elder statesman left to form their own business, J O Hambro & Co in 1986. The boutique operation, specialising in investment management and corporate advice, suited Rupert Hambro much better than the larger bank - where, he once observed, the dealmakers naturally rose to the top but found themselves worrying about the "carpets and the nightwatchman's salary". Rupert focused on mergers and acquisitions, forming a partnership in 1988 with another high-profile City player, George Magan. As Hambro Magan their roll-call of major transactions included the sale of Morgan Grenfell to Deutsche Bank, of Warburgs to Swiss Bank and of Jaguar to Ford - and finally the sale of their own firm to NatWest in 1996. Energetic, gregarious, always entertaining company, Hambro had a roving eye for business opportunities but little time for detail: one profile praised his "cavalier dash". Alongside a huge portfolio of boardroom and committee roles, a knack for befriending talented people drew him towards the venture-capital arena, where, among others he was an early backer of the Sipsmiths gin brand that was eventually sold to Japanese investors for £50 million. Rupert was educated at Eton and the University of Aix-en-Provence where he learned French and studied International Law. He joined Hambros Bank in 1964 and spent time in Copenhagen, Geneva and Canada where the family had mining interests. In London he specialised in the fast-growing Eurobond business, in which Hambros built a strong position on behalf of its Scandinavian client base, becoming a director of the bank in 1969 and deputy chairman in 1980. One of the youngest of the City's top echelon, he was once ticked off by the Governor for attending an emergency meeting at the Bank of England in jeans and pink socks. Rupert Hambro and his American-born wife Robin, a former fashion journalist, maintained a tireless social whirl on both sides of the Atlantic. His lockdown advice to the young was "Hang in there". He was appointed CBE in 2014. He married Mary Robinson Butler nee Boyer in 1970; she survives him with their son and daughter. Extracted from the Daily Telegraph 1st March 2021. |
1: 1974 Jonathan Christopher Hambroc | |||||||
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