Jennifer Mary Victoria d'Abo (nee Hammond-Maude, 14 August 1945 – 30 April 2003) was a British entrepreneur, best known for turning around the retail chain Ryman in the 1980s, and making stationery "trendy".[1] [2] [3] [4] According to Nicholas Faith writing in The Independent, she was "that rarest of phenomena, a serial female entrepreneur".[2]
She was born Jennifer Mary Victoria Hammond-Maude on 14 August 1945, the daughter of a diplomat, Major Michael William Vernon Hammond-Maude, and his first wife, Rosamond Patrick.[4] He was the last undisputed Lord of the Manor of Baildon.[5]
After she married her third husband, she started a business career, with a grocery shop in Basingstoke, soon followed by a furniture shop, which sold three years later for a profit of £1 million, and bought a toiletries company.[1]
In 1981, she bought the Ryman stationery shop chain from Ralph Halpern of Burton Group, before selling it in 1987 to Pentos for £20 million, growing the business value by nearly ten times in six years.[1] [2]
The success of her later ventures was more mixed, and she even had a recipe book published, complete with several celebrities contributing, Jennifer d'Abo At Home.[1]
In 1963, she married David Morgan-Jones, a Life Guards officer, they had a daughter, Sophie, and later divorced. In 1970, she married Peter Cadbury, they had a son, Joel Cadbury, but divorced in 1976. Peter Cadbury said that the reason was because, "she's a better entrepreneur than me". Her third marriage, to the stockbroker Robin d'Abo, survived until 1987.[1] [2]
She stayed on good terms with all three of her former husbands, and once arranged a dinner with all three, which was a success; and she went on holiday with one ex- and her successor.[2] She was known for her eccentricities, her connections to socialites and her "larger-than-life style", "typified by trademark heart-shaped spectacles".[1]
She had homes in Chelsea, the grounds of Blenheim Palace and at The Anchorage in Mallorca
She died of cancer on April 30, 2003, aged 57.[6]