Sir Chips Keswick
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Richard R
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Sir Chips Keswick, scion of the Jardine Matheson dynasty who chaired Hambros and Arsenal – obituary
A self-confessed late starter, he was ‘a punctual Hooray Henry’ until a New York posting taught him about risk and ‘showed me I am a hunter’
Sir Chips Keswick, who has died aged 84, was born into the dynasty that built the Far Eastern trading empire of Jardine Matheson, but made his own path to become chairman of Hambros Bank and Arsenal Football Club…..
John Chippendale Lindley Keswick was born in Shanghai on February 2 1940. He was the second of three sons (followed by a daughter) of Sir William “Tony” Keswick and his wife Mary, daughter of Sir Francis Lindley who was British ambassador in Tokyo. Always known as Chips, he liked to attribute his name to the Chinese Chippendale bed in which he was conceived.
The Keswicks descend from a sister of William Jardine, who with James Matheson began trading in tea, silk and opium at Canton in 1832. Tony Keswick combined his role as director of Jardine Matheson in Shanghai with chairmanship of the Municipal Council of the International Settlement – but Chips was still a toddler when the family returned to England after the Japanese seizure of power…….
Keswick had a range of private passions besides football. He loved fishing on the Test, taking a serious interest in river improvement as chairman of the Test & Itchen Association. He played competitive bridge at the Portland Club, in laconic style, sometimes four afternoons a week. And he kept horses in training with Jamie Snowden at Lambourn.
When Present View won the Cheltenham Novices’ Handicap Chase for him in 2014, Keswick was with Arsenal in Germany for a match against Bayern Munich – and legend said he stopped the team bus to watch the race. Another Cheltenham winner was You Wear It Well in last year’s Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle. He also owned horses in partnership with the Queen, an old friend of his wife Sarah.
Perhaps most of all he loved the landscape of south-west Scotland, where he spent boyhood summers on his father’s Glenkiln estate. At his own nearby domain, Auchendolly in the Urr valley, he kept a fine shoot, discreetly entertained the King and Queen, and was highly regarded as a benevolent employer and landlord.
He was knighted in 1993 and was a member of the Royal Company of Archers, the sovereign’s bodyguard for Scotland.
He married, in 1966, Lady Sarah Ramsay, daughter of the 16th Earl of Dalhousie, who survives him with their sons David, Tobias and Adam – for whom he was a devoted and generous pater familias. Lady Sarah is one of the Queen’s six appointed Companions; Adam Keswick is an executive director of Jardine Matheson.
Sir Chips Keswick, born February 2 1940, died April 17 2024