Remembering Richard Dunhill

Richard Dunhill was the grandson of Dunhill founder Alfred Dunhill and among the last family members to spend many years in the company's management. According to industry sources, he died on 26 August 2016 at the age of eighty-nine. The years he spent in management coincide with the period in which the company transformed from a small tobacconist's shop into a multinational luxury-goods group.

Years at the Company

According to accounts, Richard Dunhill joined the company in 1948, and his tenure lasted a total of sixty-eight years; it is stated that he spent twenty-eight of those years as a director and twenty-seven as chairman of the board. Alfred Dunhill Ltd., which grew out of a tobacconist's shop opened on Duke Street in London in 1907, evolved over the twentieth century into a luxury-goods company spanning lighters, leather goods, watches, and ready-to-wear, eventually passing into the ownership of the Switzerland-based Richemont group. Within this large structure, the pipe division occupied a place small in scale but decisive in symbolism. The family-based management tradition established by figures such as Alfred's brother Herbert Edward Dunhill gave way, during Richard's era, to a multinational management arrangement.