KENNETH WAGG, who has died aged 91, was one of the finest rackets players of his generation.
Kenneth Arthur Wagg was born on March 6 1909.
His great-grandfather had co-founded the merchant bank Helbert Wagg, and after Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford, Kenneth went to work there.
In 1933, he married Katherine Horlick, and became a director of her family's food-making firm. During the war, Wagg served with the Rifle Brigade in North Africa. Afterwards, though his marriage ended in divorce in 1946, he became chairman of Horlicks' subsidiary in America. There he met Margaret Sullavan, and married her in 1950. She had become a star with the film Only Yesterday (1934), and had already been three times married: to Henry Fonda, William Wyler and Leland Hayward.
Maggie Sullavan was talented but highly-strung; on New Year's Eve 1960 she died from barbiturate poisoning. Her death was a great blow to Wagg, but in time, he wrote, he came to treasure "the memories of an all too brief life with the most upright, unique and attractive character I had ever met".
He now threw himself into producing and backing plays in the West End. These included Julien Green's South (1961), with Denholm Elliott, and Belle, or The Ballad of Doctor Crippen (1961), by Wolf Mankowitz. His wife's death, though, had led him to examine his beliefs, and when he fell in love with the widowed Clare Lady McEwen, of Bardrochat, he was struck by the strength of her Roman Catholic faith. He was received into that Church in 1973, shortly before he and Clare McEwen were married. From then on, Wagg worked as a highly effective fundraiser for Roman Catholic causes.
He is survived by his wife Clare, and by four sons from his first marriage.
Kenneth Arthur Wagg was born on March 6 1909.
His great-grandfather had co-founded the merchant bank Helbert Wagg, and after Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford, Kenneth went to work there.
In 1933, he married Katherine Horlick, and became a director of her family's food-making firm. During the war, Wagg served with the Rifle Brigade in North Africa. Afterwards, though his marriage ended in divorce in 1946, he became chairman of Horlicks' subsidiary in America. There he met Margaret Sullavan, and married her in 1950. She had become a star with the film Only Yesterday (1934), and had already been three times married: to Henry Fonda, William Wyler and Leland Hayward.
Maggie Sullavan was talented but highly-strung; on New Year's Eve 1960 she died from barbiturate poisoning. Her death was a great blow to Wagg, but in time, he wrote, he came to treasure "the memories of an all too brief life with the most upright, unique and attractive character I had ever met".
He now threw himself into producing and backing plays in the West End. These included Julien Green's South (1961), with Denholm Elliott, and Belle, or The Ballad of Doctor Crippen (1961), by Wolf Mankowitz. His wife's death, though, had led him to examine his beliefs, and when he fell in love with the widowed Clare Lady McEwen, of Bardrochat, he was struck by the strength of her Roman Catholic faith. He was received into that Church in 1973, shortly before he and Clare McEwen were married. From then on, Wagg worked as a highly effective fundraiser for Roman Catholic causes.
He is survived by his wife Clare, and by four sons from his first marriage.
KENNETH WAGG, who has died aged 91, was one of the finest rackets players of his generation.
Kenneth Arthur Wagg was born on March 6 1909.
His great-grandfather had co-founded the merchant bank Helbert Wagg, and after Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford, Kenneth went to work there.
In 1933, he married Katherine Horlick, and became a director of her family's food-making firm. During the war, Wagg served with the Rifle Brigade in North Africa. Afterwards, though his marriage ended in divorce in 1946, he became chairman of Horlicks' subsidiary in America. There he met Margaret Sullavan, and married her in 1950. She had become a star with the film Only Yesterday (1934), and had already been three times married: to Henry Fonda, William Wyler and Leland Hayward.
Maggie Sullavan was talented but highly-strung; on New Year's Eve 1960 she died from barbiturate poisoning. Her death was a great blow to Wagg, but in time, he wrote, he came to treasure "the memories of an all too brief life with the most upright, unique and attractive character I had ever met".
He now threw himself into producing and backing plays in the West End. These included Julien Green's South (1961), with Denholm Elliott, and Belle, or The Ballad of Doctor Crippen (1961), by Wolf Mankowitz. His wife's death, though, had led him to examine his beliefs, and when he fell in love with the widowed Clare Lady McEwen, of Bardrochat, he was struck by the strength of her Roman Catholic faith. He was received into that Church in 1973, shortly before he and Clare McEwen were married. From then on, Wagg worked as a highly effective fundraiser for Roman Catholic causes.
He is survived by his wife Clare, and by four sons from his first marriage.
Kenneth Arthur Wagg was born on March 6 1909.
His great-grandfather had co-founded the merchant bank Helbert Wagg, and after Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford, Kenneth went to work there.
In 1933, he married Katherine Horlick, and became a director of her family's food-making firm. During the war, Wagg served with the Rifle Brigade in North Africa. Afterwards, though his marriage ended in divorce in 1946, he became chairman of Horlicks' subsidiary in America. There he met Margaret Sullavan, and married her in 1950. She had become a star with the film Only Yesterday (1934), and had already been three times married: to Henry Fonda, William Wyler and Leland Hayward.
Maggie Sullavan was talented but highly-strung; on New Year's Eve 1960 she died from barbiturate poisoning. Her death was a great blow to Wagg, but in time, he wrote, he came to treasure "the memories of an all too brief life with the most upright, unique and attractive character I had ever met".
He now threw himself into producing and backing plays in the West End. These included Julien Green's South (1961), with Denholm Elliott, and Belle, or The Ballad of Doctor Crippen (1961), by Wolf Mankowitz. His wife's death, though, had led him to examine his beliefs, and when he fell in love with the widowed Clare Lady McEwen, of Bardrochat, he was struck by the strength of her Roman Catholic faith. He was received into that Church in 1973, shortly before he and Clare McEwen were married. From then on, Wagg worked as a highly effective fundraiser for Roman Catholic causes.
He is survived by his wife Clare, and by four sons from his first marriage.
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