Trevor James Hemmings (11 June 1935 – 11 October 2021) was a British

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

businessman.

Early life

Hemmings was born in

Woolwich Woolwich () is a town in South London, southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was mainta ...

, London, on 11 June 1935, the son of a Royal Ordnance worker. During the

Second World War 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 ...

, part of the Royal Ordnance was relocated to Euxton, Lancashire, and the family moved there when he was aged five. Hemmings began work on the railways while studying business studies at night school. He then became an apprentice

bricklayer A bricklayer, which is related to but different from a mason, is a craftsperson and tradesperson who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The terms also refer to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of maso ...

and made his initial fortune through housebuilding businesses, the first of which he sold in the early 1970s and the second of which was bought by

Barratt Developments Barratt Redrow plc is one of the largest residential property development companies in the United Kingdom operating across England, Wales and Scotland. It is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It was originally based in Newcastle upon Tyn ...

for £5.7million.

Career

Hemmings owned

Preston North End F.C. Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional association football club in Preston, Lancashire, England. They currently play in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English footbal ...

, Northern Trust Co. Ltd, Classic Lodges Ltd. and Trust Inns Ltd. He also owned over 100 racehorses, three of which won the

Grand National The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Aintree, Merseyside, England. First run in 1839, it ...

Hedgehunter Hedgehunter (born 25 January 1996) is an Irish race horse, who won the 2005 Grand National steeplechase, ridden by Ruby Walsh and trained by Willie Mullins. He had fallen at the final fence the previous year when well placed. He then finishe ...

(2005), Ballabriggs (2011), and Many Clouds (2015). In 2009, it was reported by the ''

Sunday Times Rich List The ''Sunday Times Rich List'' is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families resident in the United Kingdom ranked by net wealth. The list is updated annually in April and has been published as a magazine supplement by British national ...

'' that Hemmings had lost £700m because of a collapse in the price of

Royal Bank of Scotland The Royal Bank of Scotland Public Limited Company () is a major retail banking, retail and commercial bank in Scotland. It is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of NatWest Group, together with NatWest and Ulster Bank. The Royal Bank of Sco ...

shares, making him only the ninth richest man in the North West and the 178th in the country. The Rich List editor, Ian Coxon, said the drop in Hemmings' fortunes had been caused by the decrease in value of his North West property portfolio as well as his share investment. According to the ''Sunday Times Rich List'' in 2021, Hemmings was worth £1.115 billion. Hemmings also purchased the site of the former

Pontins Pontins is a British company operating holiday parks in the UK, founded in 1946 by Fred Pontin. It was acquired by Britannia Hotels in 2011. Pontins specialises in offering half-board and self-catering holidays featuring entertainment at reso ...

holiday camp at Plemont Bay in

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

in 2005. He submitted several plans to redevelop the site for housing, but there followed a long campaign against the development led by the

National Trust for Jersey The National Trust for Jersey is a Charitable organization, charitable organisation which aims at preserving and safeguarding sites of historic, aesthetic and Natural environment, natural interest in Jersey. The trust held its first formal meet ...

. Ultimately in 2014 the NTJ purchased the site from Hemmings for £7.15m, with £3.6m provided by the States of Jersey.

Philanthropy

Hemmings provided the funds for the S.A.F.E centre, a project helping the victims of sexual violence in

Preston, Lancashire Preston () is a city on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. The city is the administrative centre of the county of Lancashire and the wider City of Preston, Lancashire, City of Preston local government district. Preston ...

Recognition

Hemmings was appointed

Commander of the Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order () is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the monarch, members of the royal family, or to any viceroy or senior representative of the ...

(CVO) in the

2011 Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours 2011 for the Commonwealth realms were announced on 11 June 2011 in the United Kingdom,United Kingdom: New Zealand,The Princess Royal Trust for Carers The Carers Trust is a charity in the United Kingdom which supports carers. It works with a network of partner organisations to help carers with the challenges of their caring roles. History The Princess Royal Trust for Carers was created on th ...

, now renamed Carers Trust.

Personal life

Hemmings married Eve Rumney in 1955, they had three sons and one daughter. In later life, he primarily resided at the Ballasyer Stud,

Andreas, Isle of Man Andreas or ''Kirk Andreas'' () is a village on the Isle of Man, lying in the north of the island, 5 km from the island's second town, Ramsey. There is a large, and nowadays little used, airfield in the vicinity. Location Andreas lies at a ...

. He died on 11 October 2021, at the age of 86.

References