Peter Seilern

Although born to an English father in Austria, Peter Seilern and his family moved to Switzerland in 1938 at the time of the Anschluss. Shortly afterwards he moved to Argentina with his mother and two sisters, and during his time in South America he learned to ski.

Seilern returned to Switzerland to attend school and, while still at school, he won the 1954 British junior ski title at the age of 17. Watching the event was the veteran skier Sir Arnold Lunn, who predicted Seilern would go on to become one of Britain’s best skiers.

Lieutenant Seilern was serving two years National Service in the British Army’s most senior regiment, the Life Guards, when he won the downhill at the 1956 British Championship. Seilern went to the Cortina Winter Olympics as the youngest member of the Great Britain squad that year, and finished 48th in the slalom. The following year he had a memorable British Championship, winning all three events, slalom, giant slalom, and downhill to capture the title, which he retained in 1948.

Seilern came from a wealthy background, as did his grandmother Antoinette Woerishoffer, a former American debutant, who died in childbirth in 1901 having given birth to her third child in three years. Seilern’s father Charles and his two brothers were jointly brought by up by their father and wealthy American grandmother Anna Woerishoffer. When Anna died in 1931, the three boys inherited a reported $210 million between them.