Inside the (very) secret world of the Barclays and an oh-so tangled web

With their showpiece Telegraph up for sale amid a banking feud, Chris Blackhurst on the family in the eye of a business storm

A FEW years ago, I was at a fashion retailer's collection launch in London. The crowd was packed, full of media types. In the corner, a DJ pumped out the music. The canapes were going round.

Suddenly, the throng had to part. This short figure, with what appeared to be minders either side of him, had come into the room. He was wearing a chalk pinstripe suit with slicked hair. He looked important or rather he wanted us to think he was important. It was Howard Barclay, joint owner of the Telegraph newspaper group.

What was striking was just how much like his father and uncle he was. Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, on their rare appearances in public, would make similar entrances. Always dressed in pinstripes, their hair neatly parted, shoes highly polished, ties knotted just so, they were identical twins. They conveyed superiority, detachment and yes, a certain disdain.

David and Frederick were born in 1934 and grew up in Hammersmith and Kensington. The Barclays' parents were Beatrice and Frederick, a travelling salesman. David and young Frederick had six other siblings. Frederick snr died when the brothers were 12. They left school as soon as they could and plied a variety of trades.

They clearly had some sort of aura back then. They liked ballroom dancing and in 1955 David, then only 21, married Zoe Newton, who went on to become the highest-paid model of the day. What's extraordinary about their origins is not only did it give them their style but that they should go on to own the Ritz and Telegraph, two icons of the establishment, as well as both receiving knighthoods.