Peter D M Gell was admitted to the Livery by patrimony in 1966, aged 37. His father Harold Gell, a Civil and Mechanical Engineer and a director of Legrand, Sutcliff and Gell, artesian well engineers, was a member of the Court at the time.
Peter was educated at Sherborne and Worcester College, Oxford and became a chartered accountant in 1957. During National Service he was commissioned in the Royal Artillery, subsequently flying with the University Squadron and qualifying in the Territorial Army as an Air OP pilot. Seeking to broaden his experience, he was recruited by Peat Marwick & Mitchell and sent to Calgary in Western Canada, where he became Secretary/ Treasurer of Lobitos Oilfields, Canada. In that active environment he met his wife Jean, a medical intern from Crowborough where subsequently two of their children were born before being posted back to Burmah Oil in London.
Adjusting to the slower pace of commercial life in the UK proved difficult. He applied to an advertisement which ended with “a sense of humour and to be something of a jack of all trades,” which led to his joining Wycombe Marsh Paper Mills, a member of the Bunzl Group, at High Wycombe and becoming managing director in 1968. He found coaxing the 250-year-old mill to stay profitable quite a
challenge, but he was greatly supported by a multi-ethnic workforce.
In 1976, he joined the board of Bunzl PLC and, during the roaring ’80s, chaired its Industrial Division, which included some twenty companies. He was also responsible for the Group’s Community Affairs Programme.
On reaching retirement age, he transferred to the public sector becoming chairman of the Buckinghamshire Family Health Services Authority and a Board member of the Oxford Regional Health Authority. He chaired the Amersham Music Festival 1991-1996 and is a trustee of the Wishbone Trust and the Marlow Pastoral Foundation.
His personal interests centred around his home and family. His wife Jean and he had four adult children Alison, Fiona, Naomi
and Alastair. Other activities included music, especially singing with the South Bucks Choral Society and attending the Dartington Summer School, shooting, walking and occasional fishing. He was also a Liveryman of the Stationers’ Company where he served on their Charity Committee.