Leonard Ingrams

Who was Leonard Ingrams?

Leonard Victor Ingrams was a merchant banker and opera festival founder/impresario.

Leonard Ingrams was the youngest of four sons. His parents were Leonard St Clair Ingrams and Victoria. His mother was very musical and he started to learn the violin at the age of six. Later he played in the National Youth Orchestra under Sir Malcolm Sargent. He was educated at Stonyhurst College, where he was inspired by Peter Levi, and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He gained a double first in Classical Moderations and Greats. Subsequently he taught classics at Queen Mary College, University of London from 1965 to 1967.

In 1967 Leonard Ingrams joined Baring Brothers, a long-established merchant bank, where he was an international financier. After postings to Paris, Cologne and Hamburg, he was sent in 1972 to Saudi Arabia to head the Barings' team at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency. He subsequently left Barings and spent a six month sabbatical in Italy where he studied the viola under Bruno Giuranna in Siena. He then returned to Riyadh and worked independently as 'the greatest advisor' for S.A.M.A.. In the mid eighties he came back to England and was appointed a director at Flemings Bank.