Edwin Pentland Hick (21 July 1919 – 6 March 2016) was a British entrepreneur, author, publisher, and veteran of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Hick is best known for founding the Flamingo Land Theme Park and Zoo in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

Military service

Hick served with the Eighth Army as a

sergeant Sergeant (Sgt) is a Military rank, rank in use by the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and in other units that draw their heritage f ...

in the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) was a specialist corps in the British Army which provided medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. On 15 November 2024, the corps was amalgamated with the Royal Army De ...

from 1939 to 1945.

Pentland Hick Cinemas

After

, he left the army and returned to his hometown of

Scarborough, North Yorkshire Scarborough () is a seaside town and civil parish in North Yorkshire District, the district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. With a population of 61,749, Scarborough is the largest town on the Yorkshire Coast and the No ...

, where he was given shares in the failing Aberdeen Walk Picture House when his father, a solicitor, was able to arrange for a client to grant a mortgage for it. He renamed the cinema "The Gaiety" and turned it around financially. He built the business into Pentland Hick Cinemas, a chain of seven cinemas including the ''Wyke Star''. The Aberdeen Picture House is now a furniture store, with the original name still visible in stone relief along the front.

Playwright/Impresario

During the 1950s, Hick was also writing -

Samuel French Samuel French (1821–1898) was an American entrepreneur who, together with British actor, playwright and theatrical manager Thomas Hailes Lacy, pioneered in the field of theatrical publishing and the licensing A license (American Englis ...

published two of his one-act plays, ''The Singing Maid'', and ''The Emperor Godiva''. He was friends with

Harry Corbett Harry Corbett Order of the British Empire, OBE (28 January 1918 – 17 August 1989) was an English Magic (illusion), magician, puppeteer and television presenter. He was best known as the creator of the glove puppet character Sooty in 1952 ...

and contributed scripting and promotion to

Sooty Sooty is a British children's television media franchise created by Harry Corbett incorporating primarily television and stage shows. The franchise originated with his fictional glove puppet character introduced to television in '' The Sooty ...

. He brought Harry and Sooty to the stage in his show FAMILY FUN in Christmas matinees at the

Adelphi Theatre The Adelphi Theatre is a West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster, central London. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiv ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, and holiday season matinees at the ''Floral Hall'' in

Zoo and Theme Park

In 1959 Hick sold the cinema chain and bought a bankrupt country club on of land in the

Ryedale Ryedale was a non-metropolitan district in North Yorkshire, England. It was in the Vale of Pickering, a low-lying flat area of land drained by the River Derwent, Yorkshire, River Derwent. The Vale's landscape is rural with scattered villages ...

district and named it the ''Yorkshire Zoological Gardens''. He originally rented animals until receipts allowed him to buy more. The park housed not only pink flamingos, but the UK's first captive

bottlenose dolphins The bottlenose dolphin is a toothed whale in the genus ''Tursiops''. They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus contains three species: the common bot ...

in 1963 and later a whale. One of the dolphins was named ''Sooty'' after Corbett's creation. The park grew to incorporate a

funfair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Fairs showcase a wide range of go ...

and

amusement rides Amusement rides, sometimes called carnival rides, are mechanical devices or structures that move people to create fun and enjoyment. Rides are often perceived by many as being scary or more dangerous than they actually are. This could be due to ...

, one of the first zoos in Europe to do so. Hick floated the park on the London Stock Exchange in 1965 as Associated Pleasure Parks, and renamed the park "Yorkshire Zoo". Associated Pleasure Parks was then taken over by a larger company (Scotia Leisure) which shortly afterward collapsed in an embezzlement scandal, leaving Hick broke. The park was eventually to come full circle and is now, at , once again Flamingo Land Theme Park and Zoo. Later without capital, Hick tried many activities without notable success, until he went full-time into writing, including theatre and television scriptwriting. He died in March 2016 at the age of 96.Edwin Pentland Hick death notice
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Bibliography

* SIN B0000CHKBT(1950) The Wasp Without Wings (no ISBN) * SIN B0000CIGU4(1953) The Singing Maid, A romantic comedy in Chinese the Manner (sic!) (no ISBN) * The Singing Maid, acting edition * SIN B0000CJS43(1957) The Emperor Godiva: A play in one act (with apologies to Hans Andersen) (no ISBN) * The Emperor Godiva: acting edition * (2009) Ogoun's Bomb: a novel

References

External links

Flamingo Land Theme Park and Zoo official site

History and Discussion about Flamingo Land
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hick, Pentland 1919 births 2016 deaths English dramatists and playwrights English male dramatists and playwrights People from Scarborough, North Yorkshire 20th-century English businesspeople British Army personnel of World War II