Peter Denis Hill-Wood (25 February 1936 – 27 December 2018) was a British businessman and a chairman of Arsenal Football Club.

Biography

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Hill-Wood was born in Kensington, London, son of Denis Hill-Wood and his wife Mary Smith. His father, three uncles and grandfather all played first-class cricket for Derbyshire County Cricket Club.

Peter Hill-Wood attended Ludgrove School[1] and Eton College, where he was a classmate of former Arsenal director Sir Roger Gibbs. He then served in the Coldstream Guards. After leaving the Guards, Hill-Wood entered the banking industry, eventually rising to become a vice-chairman of Hambros Bank, having previously been in charge of its investment division.

After Hill-Wood retired from his post at Hambros, he was a director of Cavenham Ltd and Hellenic and General Trust.

Arsenal chairmanship

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He was the third generation of his family to serve as chairman of Arsenal, following his father, Denis Hill-Wood (in office 1962–1982), and his grandfather, Samuel Hill-Wood (1929–1936 and 1946–1949) from Glossop, Derbyshire. Hill-Wood joined the Arsenal board in October 1962.[2] Peter succeeded his father after the latter's death in 1982. He was not in charge of any day-to-day business at the club, which was generally run by David Dein and a succession of first team managers.

Hill-Wood was a colleague of Chips Keswick – a former Bank of England director[3][4] – at Hambros and subsequently saw him recruited to the Arsenal board to provide strong City of London contacts at a time when the club were financing their new stadium.[5]

Hill-Wood sold much of his family holdings in the club to former vice-chairman David Dein in the 1980s and 1990s and the rest to Stan Kroenke.

On 14 June 2013 Hill-Wood stepped down and was replaced as chairman by Keswick.[4]

Other

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Personal life

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He married Sally Andrews in 1971 and had three children.[8]

Health

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On 2 December 2012, Arsenal announced Hill-Wood had suffered a heart attack and was recovering in hospital.[9][10]

Death

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Peter Hill-Wood died late in the evening of 27 December 2018, aged 82. [11][12]

References

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  1. ^ Barber, Richard (2004). The Story of Ludgrove. Oxford: Guidon Publishing. p. 261. ISBN 0-9543617-2-5.
  2. ^ Evening Telegraph Sat, 13 Oct 1962 ·Page 23
  3. ^ "Chips Keswick joins Investec board". Financial News. 13 March 2000. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  4. ^ a b "Sir Chips Keswick appointed chairman". Arsenal F.C. 14 June 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  5. ^ Arsenal.com Archived 22 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ "First-Class Matches played by Peter Hill-Wood". Cricket Archive. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  7. ^ "Who We Are". Business For Sterling. Archived from the original on 7 July 2004. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
  8. ^ WEDDINGS; Sarah Hill-Wood, Timothy Dana - New York Times
  9. ^ "Peter Hill-Wood taken ill". Arsenal.com. 2 December 2012. Archived from the original on 2 December 2012.
  10. ^ "Peter Hill-Wood: Arsenal chairman suffers heart attack". BBC Sport. 2 December 2012.
  11. ^ http://www.thearsenalhistory.com/?p=15646
  12. ^ "Peter Hill-Wood: Arsenal's former chairman has died at the age of 82". BBC News. 28 December 2018. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
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