Arthur Octavius Edwards (1876–1960) was an English builder, property developer and hotel manager best known for building the

Grosvenor House Hotel ] JW Marriott Grosvenor House London, originally named the Grosvenor House Hotel, is a luxury hotel that opened in 1929 in the Mayfair area of London, England. The hotel is managed by JW Marriott Hotels, which is a brand of Marriott Internat ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in the 1920s. Edwards was born in 1876 in

Ripley, Derbyshire Ripley is a town in the Amber Valley borough of Derbyshire, England. History Little information remains as to when Ripley was founded, but it appears in the 1086 Domesday Book, when it was held by a man called Levenot. In 1251 Henry III grante ...

, the son of Edgar James and Ellen Edwards; his father was a civil engineer. He first worked in a drawing office in Westminster before moving to Ceylon to work on building Railways. On his turn to England he was involved in the re-building of the

Savoy Hotel The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August ...

. With a "considerable professional ability and a shrewd eye" for business he soon gained interests in South Africa and the United States. Edwards built the Grosvenor House Hotel in the 1920s and it opened in 1929 on the site of

Grosvenor House Grosvenor House was one of the largest townhouses in London, home of the Grosvenor family (better known as the Dukes of Westminster) for more than a century. Their original London residence was on Millbank, but after the family had developed ...

, the former London residence of the Dukes of Westminster, whose family name is Grosvenor. Edwards was managing director and chairman for 10 years. He was not a pilot but had an interest in aviation, in 1934 he purchased a

de Havilland DH.88 Comet The de Havilland DH.88 Comet is a British two-seat, twin-engined aircraft built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was developed specifically to participate in the 1934 England-Australia MacRobertson Air Race from the United Kingdom to ...

race to compete in the

MacRobertson Air Race The MacRobertson Trophy Air Race (also known as the London to Melbourne Air Race) took place in October 1934 as part of the Melbourne Centenary celebrations. The race was devised by the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Sir Harold Gengoult Smith, and th ...

. He named the aircraft ''Grosvenor House'' which flown by

C. W. A. Scott Flight Lieutenant Charles William Anderson Scott, AFC (13 February 1903 – 15 April 1946Dunnell ''Aeroplane'', November 2019, p. 46.) was an English aviator. He won the MacRobertson Air Race, a race from London to Melbourne, in 1934, in a tim ...

and

Tom Campbell Black Tom Campbell Black (December 1899 – 19 September 1936) was an English aviator. He was the son of Alice Jean McCullough and Hugh Milner Black. He became a world-famous aviator when he and C. W. A. Scott won the London to Melbourne Centenary ...

went on to win the race.

He was founder and developer of

Palm Beach Shores, Florida Palm Beach Shores is a town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population was 1,142 at the 2010 census. As of 2018, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 1,264. Geography The town occupies the southern tip of Sing ...

, and was the first mayor from 1952 to 1954. Edwards died in Villanove, Pennsylvania, United States, in 1960, aged 84.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Arthur Octavius 1876 births 1960 deaths English civil engineers People from Ripley, Derbyshire