In memory of Sir Ronald Hampel

The AELTC is deeply saddened to hear of the passing of one of the Club’s Vice-Presidents, Sir Ronald Hampel, aged 93. He had been a Full Member of the All England Club since 1987 and served on the Club Committee between 1994 and 2006.

In addition to his service to the Club, Sir Ronald had a distinguished career in business, most notably with ICI, for which he was knighted in 1995. He also held the distinction of the being the only person to be a Member of both the All England Club and Augusta National Golf Club.

Sir Ronald Claus Hampel was born in 1932 and educated at Canford School and Corpus Christi, Cambridge. He played at Junior Wimbledon in 1950 and represented the Grasshoppers at Cambridge University.

After joining ICI in 1955, he held several positions in various divisions, at home and abroad, including four years in the USA. He became Chairman of ICI Paints Division in 1980 and Chairman of ICI Agrochemicals in 1983. He joined the ICI Board in 1985, became Chief Operating Officer in 1991, Chief Executive in 1993 and was Chairman from 1995–99. He was knighted in the 1995 New Year Honours list.

He was also a Director of the American Chamber of Commerce (1988-91) and Chairman of the Committee on Corporate Governance (1995-98). He was a non-executive director of Powell Duffryn Plc (1983-88), of Commercial Union plc (1989-96) and of BAE Systems plc (1989-2002). From 1999–2002, he was chairman of United Business Media (UBM).

Sir Ronald was a member of the Steering Committee of the European Round Table, of the Listed Companies Advisory Committee of the London Stock Exchange, of the Nomination Committee of the New York Stock Exchange and of the Executive of the British North American Committee.

In addition, he was Chairman of the Trustees of the Eden Project, a Patron of ROC (Research into Ovarian Cancer) and a Fellow of Corpus Christi College Cambridge. Between 1997 and 2001 he was a member of the Advisory Committee of the Karlpreis Aachen (Charlemagne Prize), a prize awarded for work done in the service of European unification.

Having been elected to the Club Committee in 1994, Sir Ronald served on the Ground, Marketing, Royal Box, and Investment Sub-Committees. He also sat on the Joint Finance Committee. He was appointed a Vice President on his retirement from the Committee in 2006.

An enthusiastic sportsman, he was a member of MCC and the R&A, as well as Augusta National. He was also a keen skier.

He will be missed by many in the worlds of both sport and business.