Founder of Dateline?

[Thumper GT]

Not sure if this is the right place, but the answer's puzzling me, so it could be acceptable . . .

I'm helping to research a book about local history, and have been told that the founder of Dateline used to live in the village, perhaps ten years ago or so. It's been suggested that his surname is/was Patterson (perhaps one 't'), but can't find this confirmed anywhere. Anyone got any better suggestions? Many thanks.

[oldwoman]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htm/Content.jhtml/a rchive.

[Thumper GT]

Thanks oldwoman, although the link doesn't seem to work at the moment. I'll do as suggested and "try again later".

[Thumper GT]

A bit of lateral thinking and I've found what I think you were trying to link to - a piece about John Patterson on the DT site. Answers all my questions, so thank you very much!

[oldwoman]

Sorry about that , it was the inquest into his death. He was an alcoholic found drowned in his ex wifes bath at Elm near Wisbech Cambs.John Patterson had been too frightened to leave his home Chesterton Manor,near Oxford. She had a second home in Walpole St peter. He also owned the Hambleton Vineyard in Hampshire. Hope one of these place names is what your`e looking for.

[oldwoman]

You can tell I have a boring life Cheers.

[wizzy1]

Hey Thumper. I am a family member of John Patterson and randomly came across your post. Anything you need to know I hope I can help to clear things up

[Thumper GT]

Thanks wizzy1. We needed to establish the dates between which John Petterson owned the Manor house here in the village. We did that, and the book went to print in September. He was only here for a couple of years.

[challaw]

Dateline was founded in 1967 by John Patterson. He went to a minor public school - Bishops Stortford College, thence to a local Tech and then for one year to UC London where he was chucked out at the end of year 1 for failing his exams. He then started Dateline (which operated for several years without a computer) before it blossomed into a highly successful computer dating agency. Regrettably John alienated most of his friends and took to the bottle. He became quite wealthy and a collector of Mercedes sports cars and large English country houses one of which was in your village where he lived for a short time.

[blibs321]

are you talking about hambledon in hants ?
i knew john patterson and he brought the house with the vinyard in hambledon,i think it was 19 yrars ago

[blibs321]

are you talking about hambledon in hants ?
i knew john patterson . he brought the house with the vinyard in hambledon,i think it was 19 years ago not sure i was working for my father then he knew him very wel.!i did some work at his house he had this huge fish tank we made a wooden frame for it.
it was sad to hear of his death.
i miss him loads.
blibs321

[barrynaps]

I KNEW JOHN FOR ABOUT 6 MONTHS , BUT FOR THAT 6 MONTHS I SAW JOHN AND KIM EVERYDAY, I WAS A PLASTERER WORKING ON HIS WINE BAR NEXT DOOR TO HIS OFFICES, HE WAS A GREAT BLOKE HELPED ME SORT OUT MY FLAT I WAS BUYING, JOHN AND KIM EVEN TOOK ME WITH THEM ONE NIGHT FOR A THAI MEAL. EVENTHOUGH I WAS STILL IN MY WORKING CLOTHS, I STAYED AND WORKED OVERTIME MOST NIGHTS AND GOT TO KNOW HIM VERY WELL, REMEMBER KIM USED TO BORROW MY CAR NOW AND AGAIN ONCE IT GOT CLAMPED, HE ALSO ASK ME TO GO WITH HIM ON HIS PLANE FOR THE BOUJOUSE RACE, A VERY NICE MAN
AND GENTLEMAN.

[Valerie8862]

I was married to John Patterson. He died at my house in Elm, Cambs. The press at the time were ill informed and myths still persist to this day. He was neither a broken man or lonely. I was with him and our children saw him most weekends. He had just had his first grandchild.
One day he had a bad fall. A few days later we travelled to my country house. He became unconscious in the bath due to bleeding to the brain from the fall. He drowned. Yes, he did have a drink problem generally. This was in the latter years of his life.
He lost his two brst friends in rapid succession. His friend Giles Kershaw the explorer and his brother, Colin. He never really recovered from this loss.
His family, however, remain dedicated to his memory. He was a great guy who loved people and would help anyone.

SADLY MISSED EVERY DAY

[landcruiserman]

Hi, my name is Roy I lived in Hambledon village for 27 years and used to have a JCB excavator, when John bought the vineyard he asked me to come up and do some work, I spent ages up there and became a friend.

John was a pure gentleman and our children used to play together, whilst having some great bbq/s.

He also allways had time for the working man like myself, he got us our first computer from Alan sugar, Amstrad and very basic by todays standards lol

We did a couple of visits to Chesterton manor and allways kept in touch.

Should not have died so young !

[skp20040]

It was John Patterson , he started Dateline and also owned a small chain of wine bars in London and the Hambledon vineyard in Hampshire and used to take part in the Beaujolais race , sadly he died in 1997. I know this as I used to work for him many years ago in one of the wine bars . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Richard_Patterson