The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Daily Telegraph owner Sir David Barclay, 86
One half of the business world’s “Barclay Twins”, the Da i ly Telegraph’s joint-owner Sir David, has died after a short illness aged 86.
Along with his identical twin Sir Frederick, Sir David built a vast business empire which began with hotels and expanded to include shipping, retailing, and, since 2004, ownership of the Telegraph Media Group.
The paper said the Barclay brothers had “operated as one” throughout their business career, while steadfastly avoiding personal publicity and media scrutiny.
However, the Barclays made headlines last year when it was revealed Sir David’s sons, Alistair, Aidan and Howard, and Aidan’s son Andrew, had bugged the conservatory of the Ritz hotel to secretly record
Frederick in order, they claimed, to protect the family and its business interests.
In a statement on his b r o t h e r ’s death, Sir Frederick said: “It was a great journey in everything that we did, the good, the bad, the u g l y. . . we experienced it from being bombed out of our beds in Coventry to the deals that we made and the ones that got away.
“We were twins from the beginning until the end.
“He was the right hand to my left and I was his left hand to his right. “We’ll meet again.” The Barclay brothers had an estimated wealth of £7 billion.
They had turned to media ownership in 1992 by buying the weekly newspaper the European, which closed in 1998, while they had also owned the Scotsman from 1995-2005.
After first expressing interest in the Daily Telegraph to its Canadian owner Conrad Black in May 2003, and while a private deal was overruled by a US court in November of that y e a r, the Barclays eventually acquired the paper seven months later for £665 million.
The paper quoted a colleague of the brothers as s ay i n g Sir D av i d was distinct from Sir Frederick in that he was “more attuned to taking a risk, and Frederick was generally willing to have a look but would never bet the farm”.
Among a number of trophy assets the brothers amassed were the Mirabeau hotel in Monte Carlo and Brecqhou, a small rocky island 80 yards from the Channel Island of Sark where they had a £60m turreted castle built.
Their ownership brought them into conflict with some of the islanders over the years.
Sir David and Sir Frederick were born into a large family in Hammersmith on October 27 1934, with David the older by 10 minutes. Their father, also Frederick, was a travelling salesman from Kilmarnock who died when the boys were 13.
David and two of his brothers were evacuated several times during the Second World War, the Te l e g r a p h said, and ultimately the twins left school aged 14.
Boris Jo h n s o n , who worked as a columnist for the p a p e r, tweeted: “Farewell with respect and admiration to Sir David Barclay who rescued a great n e w s p a p e r, created thousands of jobs and who believed passionately in the independence of this country and what it could achieve.”