Peter Sacheverell Wilmot-Sitwell (28 March 1935 – 19 June 2018) was a British

merchant banker A merchant bank is historically a bank dealing in commercial loans and investment. In modern British usage it is the same as an investment bank. Merchant banks were the first modern banks and evolved from medieval merchants who traded in commodi ...

and stockbroker. He is credited with inventing the "

dawn raid A police raid is an unexpected visit by police or other law enforcement officers, law-enforcement officers with the aim of using the element of surprise in order to seize evidence or arrest suspects believed to be likely to hide evidence, res ...

" which enabled companies to build up a stake in a takeover target before the target had the chance to react. He was described by the ''Financial Times'' as a "gentleman banker", and one of the last of "an almost extinct breed" from the pre- Big Bang era.

Early life

Peter Wilmot-Sitwell was born in Kent on 28 March 1935 to

Robert Bradshaw Wilmot-Sitwell Lieutenant Commander Robert Bradshaw Wilmot-Sitwell Commander of the Order of British Empire, CBE (18 November 1894 - 1946) was a Royal Navy officer and commander of the destroyer HMS ''Tilbury''. Early life and family Robert Wilmot-Sitwell was bo ...

(born 1894), a Royal Navy officer, and Barbara Elizabeth, daughter of Walter Septimus Fisher, of Epsom, Auckland, New Zealand. He hardly knew his father due to his naval service during the Second World War and his early death in 1946 from cancer. The Wilmot-Sitwell family were minor landed gentry, kinsmen of the

Sitwell baronets The Sitwell Baronetcy, of Renishaw in the County of Derby, is a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 3 October 1808 for Sitwell Sitwell, Member of Parliament for West Looe. The Sitwell family had been ironmasters a ...

; on his uncle's death, Robert Wilmot-Sitwell had inherited the family property of Stainsby House, Derbyshire, which was later sold, his widow living at Dummer Clump, near Basingstoke, Hampshire. Peter was educated at West Downs preparatory school in Winchester, and then at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...

and the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

(1955–58 BA, MA) where he obtained a third class degree in modern history and a half-blue in fencing for which he also represented England. His education was interrupted by national service in the

Coldstream Guards The Coldstream Guards is the oldest continuously serving regular regiment in the British Army. As part of the Household Division, one of its principal roles is the protection of the monarchy; due to this, it often participates in state ceremonia ...

from 1953 to 1955 that he enjoyed so much that he had to be persuaded by his mother to go on to Oxford.Peter Wilmot-Sitwell obituary.
''The Times'', 28 June 2018. Retrieved 1 July 2018.

Career

Wilmot-Sitwell started his banking career as a trainee at

Hambros Bank Hambros Bank was a British bank based in London. The Hambros bank was a specialist in Anglo-Scandinavian business with expertise in trade finance and investment banking, and was the sole banker to the Scandinavian kingdoms for many years. The Bank ...

in 1958, before becoming a partner at the age of 25 in 1959 at

Rowe & Pitman Rowe & Pitman was once one of the largest British stockbrokers. History The firm was founded in London in 1895 by stockbrokers George Duncan Rowe and Fred Pitman. It was known in the city as "R & P". In the 1950s, two of the firm's biggest client ...

(R & P). He was senior partner there from 1982 to 1986. He claimed that he got the job at such a young age due to his social background rather than for anything he knew and that young well-connected partners like him were known in the firm as "orchids" because they were "beautiful but utterly useless". He is credited with inventing the "dawn raid" in 1979 or 1980 when he assembled 30 of his staff to call large shareholders in

Consolidated Gold Fields Consolidated Gold Fields was a British gold-mining company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it was acquired by Hanson in 1988. History Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa was fou ...

as soon as the market opened and offer to buy their shares at a premium to the then market price on behalf of R & P's clients

Anglo-American Corporation Anglo American plc is a British listed multinational mining company with headquarters in London, England. It is the world's largest producer of platinum, with around 40% of world output, as well as being a major producer of diamonds, copper, n ...

and

De Beers Consolidated Mines De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and ...

. The raid purchased more than £100m of Consolidated stock and enabled his clients to build up a stake in their takeover target before it had a chance to react. He carried out a similar raid on Eagle Star soon after, although neither resulted in a full takeover of the intended target. A notable deal was in 1987 when Wilmot-Sitwell recruited

Robert Maxwell Ian Robert Maxwell (born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch; 10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991) was a Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor, member of parliament (MP), suspected spy, and fraudster. Early in his life, Maxwell escaped from ...

, who already had a bad reputation in the City and would normally not have been considered, to back the difficult flotation of

Eurotunnel Getlink, formerly Groupe Eurotunnel, is a European public company based in Paris that manages and operates the infrastructure of the Channel Tunnel between England and France, operates the Eurotunnel Shuttle train service, and earns revenue o ...

and secured funding of £25m from him. He was joint chairman of the merchant bank

S.G. Warburg S. G. Warburg & Co. was a London-based investment bank. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. The firm was acquired by the Swiss Bank Corporation in 1995 and ultimately became a part of UB ...

from 1986 to 1990, and chairman from 1990 to 1994. His other appointments included chairman of Merrill Lynch (formerly Mercury) World Mining Trust from 1993 to 2006, and board appointments to W. H. Smith, The Stock Exchange,

Minorco The Minorco SA (Minerals and Resources Company) was a mining company based in Luxembourg. It was set up by the South African Anglo American Corporation in 1987 to hold its non-African, non-diamond mining operations. Although Minorco was quoted on ...

, Foreign & Colonial Income Growth Investment Trust, Close Brothers, Southern Africa Investors, and Anglo American.Wilmot-Sitwell, Peter Sacheverell.
Who's Who 2018 & Who Was Who. Retrieved 1 July 2018. In the City, he received the nickname of "The Red Ferret" due to his ruddy complexion,Peter Wilmot-Sitwell, financier, 1935-2018.
Patrick Jenkins, ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...

'', 22 June 2018. Retrieved 1 July 2018. and "Captain Mainwaring" after the character in the British television sitcom, ''

Dad's Army ''Dad's Army'' is a British television sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, and originally broadcast on BBC1 from 31 July 1968 to 13 November 1977. It ran fo ...

''. He was described as notably polite but with a quick temper that the ''

'' characterised as smacking of his army experience on the parade ground. Despite his third class degree, his colleague Sir David Scholey described him as shrewd and "daunting to work against". Wilmot-Sitwell's career straddled the period in which British financial services moved from a business based on trust and self-regulation where, he recalled, "people wouldn't do business with people they didn't know socially" and firms were "ruled by the governor of the Bank of England's eyebrows", to a far more regulated environment by the end of his career. The ''Financial Times'' described him as a "gentleman banker", one of the last of "an almost extinct breed" from the pre-Big Bang era.

Personal life

In 1960, Wilmot-Sitwell married Clare Veronica (LVO 1991), daughter of Ralph Hamilton Cobbold, of Fairlawn House, Tadley, Basingstoke, Hampshire, of a landed gentry family, of Glemham Hall, Suffolk. They had two sons and one daughter. The elder of his sons is the banker Alex Wilmot-Sitwell.Burke's Landed Gentry, 18th edition, vol. 1, ed. Peter Townend, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1965, pp. 145-7, 630-1 His home was at Portman House, Dummer, near Basingstoke. His hobbies were shooting, golf, and tennis. He was a member of

White's White's is a gentlemen's club in St James's, London. Founded in 1693 as a hot chocolate shop in Mayfair, it is the oldest gentleman's club in London. It moved to its current premises on St James's Street in 1778. Status White's is the oldes ...

club and

Swinley Forest Golf Club Swinley Forest Golf Club is a golf club located in Swinley Forest off Coronation Road, three miles southwest of Ascot, Berkshire, England. It was established in 1909. The course measures a little over and was designed by Harry Colt Henry Sh ...

in Ascot.

Death

Wilmot-Sitwell died on 19 June 2018 after a stroke. He received obituaries in ''The Times'' and the ''Financial Times''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilmot-Sitwell, Peter 1935 births 2018 deaths English bankers People educated at Eton College Alumni of the University of Oxford English male fencers Coldstream Guards officers S. G. Warburg & Co. people English stockbrokers

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

People from Kent People from Dummer, Hampshire 20th-century English businesspeople