Entrepreneur and socialite

Born: August 2, 1954;

Died: August 29, 2017

SIR David Tang, who has died aged 63, was a prominent entrepreneur, founder of the Shanghai Tang fashion chain and a friend of the royals and A-list celebrities.

He was awarded a knighthood in 2008 by the Queen for his charitable services in the UK and British interests in Hong Kong, where he was born.

He first came to the Britain 50 years ago and arrived without being able to speak a word of English.

After founding his high-end fashion chain in the mid-1990s - which he later sold - in Hong Kong, Beijing and Singapore, Sir David also set up the China Clubs, a series of executive clubs in Singapore, Beijing and London.

He later opened the China Tang restaurant at the Dorchester.

Sir David, who read philosophy at university and later law - and taught at Peking University in 1983 - has been described as an intellectual by those who knew him.

He announced earlier this month that he was throwing a farewell to life party at The Dorchester in London after receiving the news he had a couple of months to live.

The event was due to take place in the ballroom at the luxury Mayfair hotel on September 6.

Sir David made headlines last year when he expressed his views on Hong Kong politics, criticising the city's then-leader Leung Chun-ying over his leadership and worrying about the future of his home city under Communist rule.

"There are many more things which need fixing, and most of them could not be achieved given the stand-off between the pan-democrats representing the majority of ordinary people, and the establishment, so-called, hugging most of our somnambulant tycoons, and that elephantine Communist Party in China," Sir David said.

Known for being well connected, Sir David knew many of the rich and famous including the late Princess Diana, whom he once hosted at the China Club, and the supermodel Kate Moss, with whom he was often photographed at parties.

Financial Times editor Lionel Barber, for whom Sir David wrote a weekly column, said he would be sorely missed.

In a statement, Mr Barber added: "David Tang was a remarkable man of many talents whose charm, erudition and wit were ever-present."

In an Financial Times interview in 2010, when asked how he would like to be remembered, Sir David said: "I've always liked the Hilaire Belloc quote, 'When I am dead, I hope it may be said: His sins were scarlet, but his books were read'."

Sir David is survived by his wife, British-born Lady Lucy Tang, and two children from a previous marriage.