DAVIDSON, Duncan Henry (1941-2025)
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Duncan Davidson, duke’s grandson who founded the housebuilding giant Persimmon
Launched in Yorkshire in 1972, Persimmon weathered property crashes and recessions to become the first pure housebuilder in the FTSE 100
Duncan Davidson, who has died aged 84, was the aristocratic founder of Persimmon, the housebuilding company, and a Northumberland landowner on an expansive scale.
A duke’s grandson who had been a page boy at the late Queen’s coronation, Davidson was an unusual person to have made his own way in the building trade – but by nature he was a tenacious and freethinking entrepreneurial swashbuckler. Having founded Persimmon in Yorkshire in 1972, he survived the property crash that followed and embarked from 1976 on a bold expansion into other parts of England, followed by a series of acquisitions of other housebuilders, to become one of the top three UK firms in the sector [….]
The £150 million fortune this success brought to Davidson enabled him to fulfil his personal dream of creating a great estate in the northern English landscape which he loved. In 1972 he bought Lilburn Tower, dating from 1829 and set in 500 acres near Wooler in Northumberland. He created new formal parkland around the house and went on to acquire land from the Co-operative Wholesale Society and other neighbouring owners, until he had assembled a holding of more than 25,000 acres at its peak (a part was sold off after the 2008 crash) which was known particularly for a grouse moor that yielded 1,250 brace in a good year [….]
Duncan Henry Davidson was born on March 29 1941. His father, Col Colin Keppel Davidson – a grandson of the 7th Earl of Albemarle and nephew by marriage of Alice Keppel, mistress of Edward VII – was killed in action with the Royal Artillery in Tunisia shortly before Duncan’s second birthday.
Duncan’s mother, Lady Rachel, was a daughter of the 15th Duke of Norfolk and a long-serving lady-in-waiting to Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent; she became Lady Rachel Pepys by her second marriage, in 1961, to Brig Anthony Pepys. Duncan’s younger sister Harriet married Michael Sefi, keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection.
As a 12-year-old page at the coronation in June 1953, Duncan recalled the strain of standing through most of the three-hour service and the experience of watching the great procession, in pouring rain, from the Buckingham Palace balcony. He went on to be educated at Ampleforth, where he was master of the beagle pack and developed a number of money-making schemes, including providing a photo-developing service for fellow pupils by sending the films by taxi to a shop in York, and acting as the school bookmaker, for which he was eventually expelled just before his A-levels, “though I’d got away with it for two years by then” [….]
To mark the millennium, Davidson added an award-winning folly to the Lilburn landscape, in the form of a lookout tower that doubles as a conference facility. He was a quietly generous donor to many charitable causes, local and further afield.
Duncan Davidson married Sarah Wilson in 1965; she survives him with their four daughters. Their youngest daughter, Rose, is a former champion amateur jockey.
Duncan Davidson, born March 29 1941, died October 19 2025
