The Queen's College Record 2020

the Command of Colonel Alistair Pearson DSO MC. John remembered standing in the
door of a C119 under close mock attack by Sabre jets preparing to drop in a training
assault on a US Air Station.
Obituaries
At Oxford, where he obtained a First Class Honours Degree, he had been tutored
by Peter Russell, Professor of Spanish. He became a member of the Bullingdon and
represented the Club at the cricket match played on the Worcester College ground in
1954 against the Oxford City Police (a victory for the Club).
In December 1956 he married Anne, daughter of R. A. Constantine. Their first home
was in Rio de Janeiro where John was employed by Shell International, later moving to
Cape Town. After which, they settled in London where John worked as a management
consultant with Urwick Orr & Partners. Later he was invited by his brother-in-law, Joe
Constantine, to join the family business where he was responsible for the Group’s
diversified property interests, subsequently becoming Chairman.
Property services proved to be the most rewarding of these activities and included the
acquisition of estate agents, Connell, in 1969 for £1.3 million. In 1990, having earned
agency income from annual sales of over 20,000 houses, in addition to professional
fees of £18m, the shareholders accepted an offer valuing the company at £48.3 million.
After that event, and conforming with a strategy to achieve diversification by the
acquisition of a new sizeable core business, Elddis Caravans (later Explorer Group), a
caravan and motor home manufacturing company, was acquired for £8.7m in 1994.
John retired in 2001. Constantine announced the sale of the caravan business for
£26.9m in May 2017.
John died at Gallery, a property on the bank of the North Esk River which he and Anne
had bought in 1998 on leaving London. Together they organised the renovation of this
classic laird’s house originally built in 1680. Anne died in 2006 and John is survived by
his son James; his daughters Louise, Teresa and Alexandra; and grandchildren Sophia
and Charles.
Written by John himself
134 The Queen’s College | College Record 2020