Ronald Hobson, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetRonald Hobson
British entrepreneur, business-owner and philanthropist
Date of Birth: 04-Jan-1921
Place of Birth: Edmonton, England, United Kingdom
Date of Death: 22-Apr-2017
Profession: businessperson
Zodiac Sign: Capricorn 
About Ronald Hobson
- Sir Ronald Frank Hobson, KCVO (1921–2017) was a British entrepreneur, business-owner and philanthropist. Hobson was born on 4 January 1921 in Edmonton, London, to a poor family.
- He served in the Army during the Second World War and, after being demobilised, noticed the potential for bombed-out plots of land in central London to be used as car parks.In October 1948, he and Donald Gosling (then a trainee surveyor at Westminster City Council) secured planning permission to convert a site in Holborn into a car park.
- They each invested £100 and became joint chairmen of Central Car Parks, charging customers 1s 6d a day.
- At the time, car traffic was low in London, but car-ownership expanded in the post-war period alongside their business; by the late 1950s, they owned more than ten car parks.
- As The Independent summarised in 1998: "Whether the two knew that the motor-car would become of the cylinders in society's engine or property prices would go sky high is not clear.
- What is not difficult to say is that the duo's remarkable rise places them among of the best British business-people of their generation." In 1958, they purchased National Car Parks (NCP) and it became their focus.
- In 1984, they also acquired Green Flag, but the 1980s also witnessed growing competition from Europarks, which culminated in a 1993 court case in which an NCP employee was charged with conspiracy to defraud after allegedly using a security firm to spy on Europarks; the employee was acquitted, and NCP eventually acquired the company.In 1998, Hobson and Gosling sold NCP (which had over 650 car parks by that time) to Cendant for £801 million; they had owned a 72.5% share of the business.
- The pair were philanthropists, donating £25 million towards the restoration of HMS Victory.
- They paid for Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's birthday celebrations in 2000, and Hobson had been among a group of businessmen who financially supported Harold Wilson as opposition leader in the 1970s.
- He turned down a knighthood in the "Lavender List" in 1976, but accepted appointment as a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order thirty years later.Hobson died on 22 April 2017.
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