SIR Chip Keswick is best known for being a former Arsenal chairman.
It has been announced that he has passed away at the age of 84. This is what we know about the football legend.
Sir Chips Keswick was a former chairman at Arsenal.
He took on the role in 2013 after joining the club’s board alongside Lord Harris in November 2005.
He stepped down in May 2020 after overseeing the team win four FA Cups.
Keswick had previously been a vice-chairman of Hambros bank between 1986 and 1998 and was knighted by the Queen for services to banking in 1993.
He was known to be a racehorse owner and owned some with the Queen.
Keswick won the Cheltenham Festival Novices’ Handicap Chase in 2014 with Present View but missed it because Arsenal were playing in Europe.
After winning again in Cheltenham last year, he said on his first time miss: “It is great to be here this time. I had to watch Arsenal against Bayern and they beat us 3-1 (on aggregate).
“I retired when I was 80 from the board. I think when you leave, you leave.
“You shouldn’t hang around, but rest assured I watch Arsenal every time on the television.”
It was announced on Friday April 12, 2024 that Keswick has died at the age of 84.
No cause of death has been revealed.
Arsenal released a lengthy statement about his time at the club.
It said: “A lifelong Arsenal supporter, he was a regular at Highbury after first standing in the boys’ enclosure in 1949 and listed his early heroes as the Compton brothers and Jimmy Logie but, above all, goalkeeper – and later manager – George Swindin, as young Chips was a budding schoolboy keeper himself.
“But it was in the banking industry Sir Chips made his name, where he was a very senior figure for many years, rising to become Chairman of Hambros Bank and also a Director of the Bank of England.
“It was during his successful banking career that he became good friends with our former Chairman, Peter Hill-Wood – a former Vice-Chairman of Hambros – and Peter recognised that his business acumen, common sense and love of the Gunners would make him an ideal board member at Highbury.”
It then goes on to talk about his career at Arsenal and what he contributed to the team.
The statement concluded: “Retirement allowed him to spend more time with his beloved family as well as indulge in his other great sporting passion, horse racing – he was a respected owner of numerous racehorses over the years.”
Yes, Keswick was married to his wife Lady Sarah and they had three son’s together – David, Tobias and Adam.
Arsenal’s statement mentioned them, saying: “Sir Chips will be greatly missed by everyone at Arsenal who knew him and we extend our deepest sympathies to his wife Lady Sarah and their children David, Tobias and Adam.”
Keswick married Lady Sarah Ramsay in 1966.
