Riddle after respected directors suddenly leave royal jewellers

• Jamie Fraser

Hamilton & Inches, the celebrated Edinburgh jewellery firm – and silversmiths to the Queen – confirmed yesterday that managing director Jamie Fraser and technical director Denzil Skinner had left the company with immediate effect last month. The Scotsman understands the pair were ousted from the firm, which has a landmark store on Edinburgh's George Street, following a meeting of its board in mid-February.

However the company, which has been a fixture in the Scottish capital since 1866, would only say that the pair had "left to pursue other interests".

A spokeswoman refused to say whether the two directors – both highly-respected members of the business community in the city – had been asked to leave the company or had been dismissed by its board.

However, the firm said its sales director Stephen Paterson had been asked to take control of the company in the wake of the departure of the other two directors.

He is the only surviving director from a management buyout of Hamilton & Inches from the Asprey Group in 1998, which also involved Mr Skinner.

Hamilton & Inches started life on Princes Street in 1866 when it was formed by Sir Robert Kirk Inches and James Hamilton.

The company relocated to its current home on George Street in 1951.

Mr Fraser, who served for ten years in the Grenadier Guards in Northern Ireland and Germany, was appointed technical director of Hamilton & Inches in 2001, becoming managing director two years later.

His stewardship of the company saw its turnover rise to 9.5 million for the year ending March 2009.

The spokeswoman for Hamilton & Inches, which also has a major store in London's fashionable Knightsbridge district, insisted it had been "performing well" over the last year.

She added: "All I can say is that Jamie Fraser and Denzil Skinner left Hamilton & Inches on Friday, 12 February. They have left to pursue other interests. That is all I can tell you.

"Stephen Paterson, who is a co-owner of Hamilton & Inches and has been with the company for more than 30 years, has been asked to take charge by the board."

The spokeswoman said Mr Paterson was unavailable to comment on the departure of the other two directors. He failed to return a number of calls from The Scotsman.

In an interview last November, Mr Fraser said the company had been trading better than expected throughout 2009 and was having a "perfectly good year".

He added: "I think we will trade through the year satisfactorily. It is not boom time but we are happy and secure."

One jewellery industry insider in the city said: "It is a major surprise that Jamie and Fraser have left Hamilton & Inches after so long.

"The company appeared to have been doing very well and there was no suggestion that it was in any kind of financial trouble.

"There are a lot of rumours flying around, but it is all a bit of a mystery, particularly as it seems to have happened so quickly," he added.

Mr Skinner has been vice-chairman and treasurer of the George Street Association for many years and is also a board member of the Essential Edinburgh group, which runs the capital's business improvement district.

Neither he, nor Mr Fraser, who worked with a major packaging and paper group before joining Hamilton & Inches, was available for comment yesterday.

One leading business sector insider said: "A lot of people have heard that Jamie and Denzil have left Hamilton & Inches but no-one seems to know why.

"The company is saying very little about what has happened. There is little suggestion what has been behind it.

"Denzil was there for as long as anyone can remember, and it is a real surprise that he has gone so suddenly."

150 years of glittering success and prestige

ONE of the best-known retailers in Edinburgh for more than 150 years, Hamilton & Inches was a family firm from its formation in 1866 until 1992, when it was bought by Bond Street jeweller Asprey, writes Brian Ferguson.

The original site at 90a Princes Street, now a branch of Body Shop, was formed by jeweller's assistant James Hamilton and his nephew Robert Kirk Inches.

Its arrival was heralded by a small advertisement placed in The Scotsman of 10 November, 1866.

It read: "Hamilton & Inches respectfully intimate that they have opened … number 90a Princes Street with an entirely new stock of jewellery, silverplate, plated goods, etc, carefully selected from the first houses in the trade…"

The firm swiftly became one of Scotland's most successful jewellery firms. It relocated to a prestigious new home on George Street in 1951.

The company attracted a number of high-profile commissions, including the clock on the Balmoral Hotel, which was designed in 1902.

It was asked to create a life-sized replica of William Wallace's sword seen in the film Braveheart, which was presented to the star, Mel Gibson.

But Hamilton & Inches most famous moment was perhaps when its silversmiths came to the rescue of rugby's Calcutta Cup in 1988 by repairing it after it was knocked out of shape following post-match dinner revelries by some players.

The then managing director Julia Ogilvy led a management buyout from Asprey in 1998, but left the company in 2003 to form her own charity.