Hugh Wontner

Sir Hugh Walter Kingwell Wontner GBE CVO (22 October 1908 – 25 November 1992) was an English hotelier and politician. He was managing director of the Savoy hotel group from 1941 to 1979 and its chairman from 1948 to 1984, continuing as president until his death. He was also chairman of the Savoy Theatre from 1948 until his death. In 1973–74, he was Lord Mayor of London.

Wontner was appointed general secretary of the Hotels and Restaurants Association of Great Britain in 1933 at the age of 25. He shepherded the Savoy hotel group properties through the difficult World War II years, restoring their lustre after the war, and successfully preserved the group's independence against take-over bids in the 1950s, 1970s and 1980s. As chairman of the Savoy Theatre, he personally supervised its rebuilding after it was destroyed by fire in 1990.

Wontner was closely involved in the City of London as a leading member of two of its ancient guilds and as alderman, chief magistrate and Lord Mayor. He was knighted in 1972.

Wontner was the elder son of the actor-manager Arthur Wontner and his first wife, the actress Rose Pendennis, whose real name was Rosecleer Alice Amelia Blanche, née Kingwell. He was born Hugh Walter Kingwell Wontner Smith, but his father changed the family name in 1909, dropping the "Smith". Wontner was educated at Oundle School and in France, but was not, he said later, an academic pupil.

After working in the Hôtel Meurice in Paris, Wontner joined the secretariat of the London Chamber of Commerce from 1927 to 1933. In 1933, at the age of 25, he was appointed general secretary of the Hotels and Restaurants Association of Great Britain. In 1936 Wontner married Catherine Irvin. They had two sons and one daughter.

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