Shanta Pathak

She was born Shanta Gaury Pathak Pandit in Zanzibar on 2 February 1927, and was of Gujarati descent. [1]

In 1945, she married Laxmishanker Pathak, who in 1938 had emigrated from Gujarat in British India to Mombasa, Kenya, where his eldest brother had a small business making sweets and samosas to the city's burgeoning Indian population.[2] After the Mau Mau insurgency, they left for England in 1956, reaching London with just £5.[2]

Patak's papadums, paste pot and Curry paste in 2018

She was unhappy about her husband's job cleaning the drains for Camden Council, and decided that they should start a similar business to what they had in Kenya, run from the kitchen of their Kentish Town flat.[3] Progress was slow, and it was not until the late 1950s that they had enough money to buy a small shop close to Euston Station, followed by another in 1961, in Bayswater.[3]

In 1962, their neighbours complained about the noise and smell, and Camden Council gave them three months to find alternative premises.[2] They found a converted mill in Brackley, Northamptonshire, and left London.[2] Later, they relocated to Lancashire.[4]

Over time, the business grew to have an annual turnover of £55 million, when in 2007, it was taken over by Associated British Foods for a reported £105 million.[3]

In 1945, she married Laxmishanker Gopalji Pathak.[1] They had four sons and two daughters.[1]

Her husband died in 1997, but the will he left was unclear, and there were long-running family disputes and various acrimonious court cases.[4]

Pathak died of heart failure on 23 November 2010, at the Royal Bolton Hospital, Farnworth, Bolton, and was survived by all six of her children.[1]