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Bunhill: Famous flock to the family feast

Dominic Prince
Saturday 27 August 1994 23:02 BST
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ON 3 NOVEMBER, at Tallow Chandlers Hall, Spitalfields, a dinner party will be held for a very select band of people indeed - the Cazalets.

The feast is the brainchild of Sir Peter Cazalet, chairman of APV, deputy chairman of GKN and a director of Wellcome and P&O to boot.

In cahoots with Sir Edward Cazalet, the High Court judge (his cousin 'five times removed', he tells me), he has written to all the Cazalets they can jointly muster to invite them to the feast.

'The Cazalets were Huguenots. We arrived here 300 years ago and I thought it high time that we had a look at each other. I'm particularly interested in the mysterious ones,' says Sir Peter.

It has been a labour of love for Cazalet, who located a good proportion of the 100 or so Cazalets through the telephone directory. No less challenging has been the work of Frances Cazalet, the head of history at Tonbridge school, who has put together a family tree for the day of celebration.

Apart from the odd second- hand car salesman, the Cazalets all appear to be perfectly respectable. For instance - via marriage - Sir Simon Hornby, former chairman of WH Smith is a Cazalet. He married Sir Edward's sister, Sherin.

Their father was Peter Cazalet, racehorse trainer to the Queen Mother, who most famously trained Devon Loch, the horse that collapsed only yards from the winning post in the Grand National when ridden by Dick Francis.

But there is more. Sir Peter himself should be regarded as a fine sire of City progeny as he explains: 'My son Julian is number five at Cazenove, and I have two other sons, one at Warburg and one at Morgan Stanley.'

There is another Cazalet, Sir Peter's brother, who was the deputy chairman of Henderson Administration, but he insists: 'We are all related by accident.' Sadly there appears to be no City super gene.

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