Imogen Skirving

Joan Imogen Muriel Skirving JP (née Huskinson, c. 1937 – 1 July 2016) was a British hotelier and restaurateur, who turned her family home Langar Hall into an award-winning country house hotel.

Biography

Skirving was born as Joan Imogen Muriel Huskinson in 1937 in Marylebone, London, England. She was the daughter of Geoffrey Huskinson, a "pre-war captain of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club,"^[1] and his wife, Carmen Imogen de las Casas, who was the daughter of a Spanish nobleman from Cuba.^[2] She had three siblings, including cartoonist Geoffrey Huskinson.^[2]

Langar Hall, Nottinghamshire

Skirving's great-grandmother bought Langar Hall, outside Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, in 1860.^[3] Skirving inherited the family home, where her father used to entertain famous cricketers of the 1930's,^[4] after his death in 1968. She turned the residence into an award-winning boutique country house hotel.^[5] Guests at Langar Hall included Keira Knightley, Barbara Cartland, Henry Blofeld, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The former Labour Party leader Ed Miliband married Justine Thornton there in 2011.^[3]

Skirving served as chair of the Nottinghamshire Building Preservation Trust in 1976.^[6]

Skirving died on 1 July 2016, when she was hit by a car whilst on holiday in Menorca, Spain.^[3][7][8]