KER, David Peter James 1951-2025
Richard R
From the Telegraph of 1 Nov 2025: KER David Peter James died peacefully, surrounded by his family, aged 74 on 18th October. He leaves behind a gap in the world that will not easily be filled. Above all things he loved his family and friends and loved to be loved in return. There will be a Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's, Knightsbridge at 11 a.m. on 30th April 2026.
He was s of Capt David John Richard (Dick) KER MC DL 1920-97 (who he succ. as) head of that Irish gentry family of Portavo, co Down and Virginia Mary Eloise 1926-2018 d of Hon James Knyvett Estcourt HOWARD 1886-1964 (s of 18th Earl of SUFFOLK & (11th) BERKSHIRE 1833-98 and scion of the COVENTRY earls, ST ALBANS dukes, FORBES lords, etc etc) and Nancy Induna Frances Caroline 1897-1972 d of Edgar LUBBOCK 1847-1907 (s of Sir John William LUBBOCK 3rd Bt 1803-65) and (as her 1st h) Amy Myddelton PEACOCK 1862-1941 (having m 2ndly the 2nd Baron KESTEVEN). He m 1974 Alexandra Mary d of Vice Adm Sir (Robert) Dymock WATSON KCB CBE 1904-88 and his 1st w Margaret Lois 1912-68 d of Rev Canon Francis Roderick GILLESPY 1880-1962 by his 29 April 1909 m (St James the Great, Friern Barnet) to his 1st w Edith May 1882-1922 d of Frederick Truman WILTSHIRE 1840-1904 by his 4 April 1864 m (St James, Croydon) to Ellen FORD 1845-1924, and had issue
1. David Edward Richard 1979-80
2. David Humphry Rivers b 1982, succeeds his father as family head: m 30 May 2015 (New York) Megan Ann GANZ
1. Clare Rose b 1977: m 17 Dec 2004 Donald Alexander Hugh b 1977 reg Q2 Oxon s of Sir Timothy Miles Bindon RICE b 1944 and Jane Artereta McINTOSH b c1946, and had issue
1.1 Wilfred Timothy Edin RICE b 2006 reg Q3 Ken&Chelsea
1.2 Reginald Hugh Rivers RICE b 2013 reg Q4 Westminster
1.1 Sylvia Joan Margaret RICE b 2009 reg Q1 Westminster
1.2 Mabel Pamela Artereta RICE b 2011 reg Q2 Westminster
colinp
David Ker, bon vivant art dealer famed for his elaborate practical jokes
His prank calls were so notorious that when David Cameron rang up a woman to offer her a peerage, she assumed it was Dave Ker on the line
David Ker, who has died aged 74, was once described as the most famous “un-famous” man in London; by trade an art dealer, he will be better remembered as one of the more vivid upper-class characters of the last half-century, thanks to two hard-to-miss attributes: he was very fat, and very funny.
Had his family, the Kers of Portavo, enjoyed themselves less, he might have inherited estates that at their early-19th-century zenith stood at 35,000 acres, when the Kers were among the richest commoners in Ireland, and owned one in 20 acres of Co Down. As it was, they were not puritans, and nor was he. The shrivelled rump of their estate was sold in 1980, and he made his own way in the world, contributing to the gaiety of life as a bon vivant and a player of elaborate practical jokes [….]
Beautiful things gave him great pleasure, and he was an avid collector of anything from hairbrushes (40 at a conservative count) to butter dishes. In 1980 he set up his art dealership on Bourne Street, where he sold pieces “of an eclectic character united by the owner’s eye for a good, attractive picture”.
In 1993 he joined the former Christie’s director Simon Dickinson in founding Simon Dickinson Ltd on Jermyn Street, where Ker handled the business side, and was in his element shuttling between his cigar-smoke-wreathed desk and his club White’s.
He was, by his own admission, a snob. A frank appreciation of the peerage dated back, in his personal mythology, to the moment when the Duke of Abercorn had pressed a banknote into his eight-year-old fist at an Irish racecourse. He used to say that he wanted all six of his pallbearers to be dukes [….]
Latterly, Ker surprised friends inured to his repertoire of ducal stories by forming a visually striking Two Ronnies-style comic double-act with the beanpole Ali Spencer-Churchill. Through this, Ker had a late flourishing as the toast of a younger set that included Guy Ritchie, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Jason Statham, and the Beckhams, who were won over by Ker’s high-risk opening gambit to David Beckham: “Remind me what it is you do?”
David Peter James Ker was born at Portavo, Co Down, on July 23 1951, the middle of three children, and the only son. His father, Captain Dick Ker, had won an MC with the Coldstream Guards in North Africa. He was badly wounded at Salerno, and in later years his leg leached filaments of metal, which – along with his Luger pistol, liberated from a German soldier – made him a hero to his neighbours’ sons.
Postwar Dick worked for George VI at Sandringham, where he met his future wife, Virginia (Bidger), née Howard, of Anmer Hall. They married, and in 1948 moved to Northern Ireland, where Dick took over the ailing Portavo estate.
A Scottish ancestor, David Ker, had fled to “ye realm of Ireland” after the murder of Mary Queen of Scots’s favourite, David Rizzio. A later David Ker, in the reign of Charles II, was credited with bringing linen production to Ulster. But the real fortune was amassed by yet another David Ker, who married a rich widow in 1748 and bought a coastal estate near Belfast at Portavo, a hotbed of smuggling, so called after the traffickers’ challenge: “Que portez-vous?”
Decline set in when a later David (1816-78) fell into debt, then drink, then lunacy, nicknamed “Six-ties” for his strange way of dressing. By the 1950s, circumstances were straitened; the young David recalled his father Dick working hard as a horse-breeder, farmer, patcher-upper and general “Steptoe”, the yard filled with works of art to be raffled off [….]
In 1970 he got a sensible job selling houses in London for Knight Frank, where he met – and in 1974 married – the beautiful receptionist “Twinks”, Alexandra Watson, daughter of Vice-Admiral Sir Dymock Watson. They soon had a daughter and a son [….]
Ker was a great bibliophile, with a particular interest in commonplace books, and his elephantine memory could absorb the contents of a book despite the television blaring beside him, two pugs lazing upon him and his grandchildren cartwheeling by his ear.
He faced his recurring illness with courage and black humour, treating friends to lunch after dispiriting diagnoses, saying: “I want to max out my credit cards.”
He is survived by his wife Twinks, their daughter Bee and their younger son, the actor and comedian Humphrey Ker.
David Ker, born July 23 1951, died October 18 2025