Hugh Cantlie (C1 1946-49) was born in Shanghai in February 1932. Whilst at the college King George VI and the Queen Mother came to visit in 1946. He was in C house.

After Marlborough he went to Sandhurst and joined the Scots Guards.

In 1963 Hugh left the army and then spent three years in the wine trade working for the German wine company Henkell Trocken and sold in the UK their sparkling wine (sekt). 

He then qualified as a Chartered Surveyor and became involved with commercial property and spent five years in Germany building office blocks and shopping centres, he spoke not only fluent German but also fluent French.  Upon his return to London he became involved with the rescue of the old Billingsgate Fish Market on behalf of Save Britain’s Heritage.  As a result, he was appointed the Surveyor for the Monument Trust. A Charity set up by Simon Sainsbury that preserved old historic buildings that were beyond commercial repair. 

He was also a trustee for the “Fondation Franco-Britannique de Sillery” (FFBS), an Anglo-French charity, based in France that assists individuals with disabilities and those facing social exclusion.

The first time Hugh went back to China was in 1989 and his last trip was in 2011 with an official invitation from the Chinese government to mark the centenary of the 1911 revolution. On this last trip Hugh met the current president, Xi Jinping.

In retirement he lectured on a variety of subjects covering the life of Sir John Vanbrugh, the Italian architect Andrea Palladio, the Lindisfarne Gospel and Holy Island. Here in the UK and as far afield as the USA and Canada.

Hugh also became an author in his own right. He wrote a motorway pub guide (being no more than a 5 minute drive from any motorway junction) suitably named “Near the Motorways”, he not only visited every pub in the guide (some 200 or so) but he also drew all the pubs that appeared in the book. He had only finished the 12th edition a couple of years before he died (it is still available here).