FORTESCUE, Hon Seymour Henry (1942-2023)
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Seymour Fortescue, head of Barclaycard who established a set of standards in banking – obituary
He was later the first person from outside the drinks industry to chair the Portman Group, which regulates alcohol labelling and promotion
Seymour Fortescue, who has died aged 80, was chief executive of Barclaycard before becoming a regulator in the financial sector and the drinks industry.
A high-flyer in Barclays Bank in his early career, Fortescue was a natural enthusiast and communicator, well-liked by colleagues, who led the bank’s marketing department before taking charge of its fast-growing Barclaycard operations…..
Seymour Henry Fortescue was born on May 28 1942, the third son of the 6th Earl Fortescue, a decorated soldier who fought in both world wars. Seymour was the only child of the earl’s second marriage to Sybil, daughter of the 3rd Viscount Hardinge of Lahore, who counted two governor-generals of India among her antecedents.
Seated at Ebrington in Gloucestershire and Castle Hill in Devon, the Fortescues were 18th-century courtiers and MPs whose earldom was created for Hugh, 3rd Baron Fortescue, son-in-law of the Whig prime minister George Grenville…..
His last jobs were as chairman of the Short-term Lending Compliance Board, set up to raise standards in the mushrooming “payday lending” sector, and as a consultant to the World Bank – for which he travelled extensively, again addressing issues relating to migrant remittances.
He was a governor of Oundle School, a member of the council of London University, chairman of BookPower (a charity dedicated to providing textbooks for tertiary students in poorer countries), treasurer of the leprosy charity Lepra, and a past master of the Grocers’ Company.
Seymour Fortescue loved tennis, adventurous long-distance walks, and gardening at his homes in Herefordshire and Provence. He married first, in 1966, Julia, daughter of Sir John Pilcher, who was British ambassador to Austria and Japan. The marriage was dissolved in 1990 and he married secondly, in that year, Jennifer Simon, who survives him with their daughter and his son and daughter from his first marriage.
Seymour Fortescue, born May 28 1942, died March 14 2023
Richard R
Obit in the Times of 1 April 2023:
Seymour Fortescue obituary
Chief executive of Barclaycard who changed the way we spend our money
… Seymour Henry Fortescue was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1942, only child of the sixth Earl Fortescue, senior partner of the stockbroker Capels, and his second wife, the Hon Sybil Mary, daughter of the third Viscount Hardinge. The Hardinge line includes two governors-general of India.
He grew up in the family’s ancestral homes at Ebrington, a 15th-century manor house near Chipping Camden in Gloucestershire, and Castle Hill in Devon. After Eton, he read economics at Trinity College, Cambridge, and joined Barclays in 1964. He then went to London Business School, where he came top of the class. That, and family connections, propelled him into an early position as assistant to the bank’s chairman before five years as a local director in Luton and then becoming head of marketing…
… Fortescue shared a London flat with Richard Meade, the Olympic equestrian, through whom he met Julia Pilcher, a designer and daughter of the diplomat Sir John Pilcher. They married in 1966. On his stag night Fortescue diverted heavy London traffic off Brompton Road down Yeoman’s Row, a cul-de-sac. The marriage ended in 1990.
They had two children. Marissa worked at Christie’s auction house before marrying Prince Maximilian zu Bentheim Tecklenberg, and James is a chartered surveyor who went into private equity.
In 1990 Fortescue married Jennifer Simon, a Barclays strategic planning and marketing manager. They built a house and garden in Provence and had a daughter, Ali, a political journalist with Sky News. Jennifer and his three children survive him…
… “He was a real adventurer,” said his son James. “His passion was for long walks, usually with little in the way of supporting maps, resulting in frequently getting lost in remote places. He walked the Gorges du Verdon in Provence, much of Offa’s Dyke and the Normandy coastline.” Fortescue raised thousands of pounds for charity, but found abseiling down a City of London skyscraper “far more scary than skiing fast down black runs in the Alps”…
Seymour Fortescue, banker, was born on May 28, 1942. He died of cancer on March 14, 2023, aged 80
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/seymour-fortescue-obituary-q6w9v2kwz