It is with much sadness that we announce the death of Mr Pat Hill who passed away on Friday 17th December at the age of 95.
Mr Hill (and his family before him) owned Bristol Uniforms for 112 years from 1887, when Mr William J Hill took over the business from Wathen Gardiner, until the sale of the family business in 1999.
Mr Hill started working at Bristol Uniforms in 1935, at the age of 20, after working for 3 years for Selfridges in London. He saw active service during World War 2, serving mainly in the Middle East from 1939 to the end of the war. In 1945 he rejoined the company and became its senior partner in 1954. He acquired the business in 1964 and took over as its Managing Director the following year when Bristol Uniforms became a limited company.
In the 1960’s, Mr Hill pioneered developments in firefighting clothing, laying the foundations of the international business it is today. He was instrumental in establishing a worldwide network of distributors in the 1940s and 1950s which today generate around half of the company’s global business.
Although retired by 1998, Mr Hill came back to oversee the sale of the Company in 1999, to what was then the Faithful Group, and is now BTQ Group.
Roger Startin, Bristol’s joint managing director, said, “I have known Pat Hill for over 30 years, and worked alongside him for almost 20, so this is a particularly sad day for me. Our staff, present and past, customers and suppliers who have known him, over a lifetime’s involvement with the company stretching back 75 years, wish to record their condolences to his family and to place on record the debt of gratitude we owe him for the contribution he has made to the growth and success of our company over this time”.
For more information please contact either;
Ian Mitchell, Bristol Uniforms Ltd on 0117 956 3101 or email [email protected]
or Roger Startin, Bristol Uniforms Ltd or email [email protected]
or Richard Storey at RSL Associates on 01749 870652 or email [email protected]
