Edmund Hoyle Vestey

Who was Edmund Hoyle Vestey?

Edmund Vestey was a member of the Vestey family that made its fortune in the meat trade, their activities ranging from retail outlets, shipping lines to processing companies in South America and cattle stations in Australia. He was the third generation to head the family business and was thought to have a personal wealth of £700 million.

Vestey was the grandson of Sir Edmund Vestey who founded the Union Cold Storage company in Liverpool in 1897 with his brother, Sir William Vestey, which later became a family business with 23,000 employees and 250,000 head of cattle on several continents, thought to have been worth nearly £2 billion.

Vestey was educated at Eton College, Berkshire, England, commissioned into the 2nd Dragoon Guards in 1951 and served as an officer in the City of London Yeomanry, a regiment of the British Territorial Army. On leaving the regular army, Vestey joined the family business and became chairman of the Blue Star shipping line in 1971, holding that post for 25 years. He was president of the General Chamber of British Shipping in 1981-82.