Peter de Savary obituary for founder of Pendennis Shipyard

At the peak of his powers here, he was described at a conference in Newquay attended by the then Prince Charles as “one of the world’s most accomplished and charismatic entrepreneurs.”

The bearded, balding, cigar-smoking magnate was widely regarded as a wholly exceptional, truly dynamic force.

He arrived in Cornwall at a time when the county had seen few major investment projects for many years and when it was suffering from a general air of economic stagnation.

In double-quick time – in 1986-87 – this was the principal de Savary Cornish count through his various companies and interests:--

• Created Falmouth Oil Services Ltd, providing a new bunkers service resulting in a dramatic increase in ships visiting the port;
• Bought up Falmouth Docks, one of the county’s biggest employers;
• Based his America’s Cup challenge at the Docks;
• Drew up plans for Falmouth’s Port Pendennis residential and marina complex;
• Bought a stake in the £80 million Falmouth Container Port project.
• Acquired Land’s End, which – pre-Eden Project – he transformed into Cornwall’s most-visited tourist attraction.

Peter de Savary (Image: Falmouth Packet)

This whole whirlwind exercise took place in just over 16 months – following his purchase of a home on the Roseland Peninsula, when he said he had had no intention of viewing Cornwall as anything other than a private retreat.

“I came down just to have a holiday home here and relax and get away from it all,” he told me. However, his eye for an opportunity and insatiable appetite for realising business potential soon changed all that.

“I found I could not resist the enthusiasm I felt for getting involved in business down here,” he said.  “The opportunities seemed to be here and I wanted to participate in them.”

After acquiring Land’s End, he also added John O’Groats to his portfolio, making him the owner of both ends of Britain.

Other Cornish projects that followed included Falmouth’s Pendennis Shipyard, which grew into a world leader, Hayle Harbour and Penzance Dry Dock.

Rarely publicity-shy, he once reacted angrily to a critical reader’s letter in the Falmouth Packet with a letter of his own in which he drew “attention to my achievements.”

He claimed to have averted the closure of Falmouth Docks and additionally noted that he had “built several fishing boats and financed young Cornishmen in the business of fishing . . . purchased and restored several properties in Cornwall . . . “ and “supported discreetly many, many charitable organisations and fulfilled individual requests.”

He added: “I am sure that I have made other contributions within the county. My efforts have saved many jobs and created a great many more new jobs.

“The investment by us of capital in Cornwall has been enormous and I continue to maintain business interests within the county of which I am very fond.”

Peter de Savary was behind the Pendennis Marina houses (Image: Falmouth Packet)

By late 1992, however, his love affair with the county was pronounced dead by accomplished former Daily Express journalist Michael Charleston.

Writing in the Western Morning News, and citing the recession as a major factor, he detailed how de Savary had relinquished nearly all his Cornish interests.

The management buy-out of the Pendennis shipyard was “the latest way he is clawing back the cash he lavished in the west.”

This figure was estimated to be at least £75 million, said Charleston. He quoted de Savary as saying: “Altogether, I invested £34 million in resources and labour in Falmouth alone, its biggest investment since the Second World War.”

De Savary sold his Roseland home and bought Skibo Castle, the former Scottish home of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, for £5.4 million.

In 1994, the Daily Telegraph reported that “the man once dubbed ‘Peter de Saviour’ (had) fulfilled the predictions of Celtic doom-mongers when Placeton, a key part of his empire, collapsed into receivership.”

He and his bankers were estimated to have lost £50 million each from Placeton and other recessionary losses, the Telegraph said, adding that “his admirers say his contribution (to the Cornish economy) surpasses that of anyone else since Richard Trevithick, the great Cornish 19th Century engineer, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who built the bridge over the Tamar.”

De Savary admitted he had “lost a fortune” but vehemently denied reports that he could be in danger of personal bankruptcy.

“I took the pain three years ago and I have worked it out,” he explained, adding that Placeton had become “just the fag-end” of his portfolio and that he was still running companies elsewhere in Britain and America and even Russia.

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He continued to pursue a multitude of business interests, outside Cornwall, until well into the 2000s. All told, he boasted a record of having transformed more than 60 hotels, seven Championship golf courses and three marinas.

In 1997 he briefly entered the world of politics by standing as a Referendum Party Parliamentary candidate for Falmouth and Camborne, coming fourth with 3,534 votes.

He died near a houseboat he owned on the Thames at Chelsea and is survived by his third wife Lana and daughters.