| AdminHistory | Peter Joseph Worth (birth name Peter Joseph Wirtz) was born on 14 Aug 1874 at Nippes near Köln (Cologne), Germany, to parents Gottfried and Anna Maria Wirtz, who were hotel managers. The family later moved to Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Peter J. Wirtz followed his parents into the hospitality/hotel trade and qualified initially as a 'first class chef' before helping to manage a range of hotels on the continent in Holland/Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Spain. He became proficient in a range of languages: English, French, German, Dutch and Spanish.
Peter J. Wirtz settled eventually in England. At the time of the 1901 UK census, Wirtz was residing at 15 Leslie Road, Edgbaston, Warwickshire, working as a chef at a restaurant (thought to be the Old Royal Hotel) and listed as a 'Holland Foreign Subject'. In the early 1900s he relocated to London, becoming Assistant Manager of the Restaurant and Banqueting Department of 'Cafe Monico', 46 Regent Street and 19 Shaftesbury Avenue, Piccadilly Circus, London, from c. 1904 - 1907 before becoming Manager of the same department there from c. 1907 - 1912. At the time of the 1911 census, Wirtz was listed as a 'Hotel Manager' living at 26 Stockwell Road, London.
Wirtz became a naturalised citizen of the United Kingdom in 1911, the same year he married his first wife Mabel Clara Holmes (nee Keyes) (1871 - 1927) in London.
Wirtz subsequently returned overseas to manage the Grand Hotel Quisisana in Tenerife, Canaray Islands, Spain, from 1912 - c. 1914, before returning to London to manage the Criterion Restaurant, Piccadilly Circus, London from 1914 - 1917. In 1917, Peter Wirtz changed his surname by deed poll to Worth, evidently prompted by the suspicion/hostility faced by those in the UK with a German-sounding surname in the First World War years.
After the war, Peter Worth served as proprietor of Kensington Court Hotel, 30 Pembridge Square, London from 1921 - 1925.
Peter Worth came to Sheffield in 1926 to become Manager of the Grand Hotel at Leopold Street, Sheffield, succeeding Mr John Kugi who left to take over the general management of the Waldorf Hotel in London. In the 1920s, under Kugi's management, the Grand Hotel had acquired a reputation locally for the successful delivery of external mass catering events. The Grand Hotel served as official caterers to the Master Cutler (providing catering for the annual 'Forfeit Feasts' and 'Cutlers' Feasts' at the Cutlers' Hall) and also to the Lord Mayor. The Grand Hotel also providing catering for royal visits to Sheffield, including for the King and Queen, His Royal Highness Prince of Wales, the Duke of York and Prince Henry (the latter stayed at the Grand Hotel in July 1923), and Princess Mary (Viscountess Lascelles). Such external catering events continued under Worth's management up until his resignation from the Grand Hotel in Dec 1932, after the hotel fell into receivership.
Worth's first wife Mabel Clara died at the Grand Hotel in 1927, and in 1934 he married again to Mary Jane Savage (1896 - 1971), with whom Worth had two daughters both born in Sheffield: Margaret (born 1935) and Mary (born 1936).
After his retirement from the hotel trade, Worth lived at Derwent Cottage, Calver. He died in 1954 and is buried (alongside his two wives) at Crookes Cemetery, Sheffield. |
| Description | Personal/Family Papers, 1862 - c. 2005 (X1083/1)
Family Photographs, [c. 1900 - c. 1950] (X1083/2)
Early Hospitality Industry Material, 1907 - 1911 (X1083/3)
Grand Hotel Quisisana, Tenerife, c. 1912 (X1083/4)
Criterion Restaurant, Piccadilly Circus, London, 1917 (X1083/5)
Grand Hotel, Sheffield, 1919 - 1933 (X1083/6)
Miscellaneous Papers, [1920s - 1930s] (X1083/7) |
| CustodialHistory | Donated to Sheffield City Archives in Oct 2023 by a private individual (executor of daughter of Peter Joseph Worth) |