Harry Craddock

English bartender
The basics

Quick Facts

IntroEnglish bartender
PlacesUnited Kingdom Great Britain England
wasBartender
Work fieldFood and Drinks
Gender
Male
Birth29 August 1876
Death25 January 1963 (aged 86 years)
Star signVirgo
The details

Biography

Harry Craddock (August 29, 1876 – January 25, 1963) was an English bartender who trained in the US and became one of the most famous bartenders of the 1920s and 1930s. He is known for his tenure at the Savoy Hotel in London, and for his 1930 book, The Savoy Cocktail Book.

Life and career

Born in Stroud, Gloucestershire, Craddock moved to the United States in 1897, where he worked at Cleveland's Hollenden Hotel and New York's Knickerbocker Hotel and Hoffman House, becoming a United States citizen. He left America during Prohibition and sailed to Liverpool with his wife and daughter before joining the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel, London, in 1920.

Craddock's The Savoy Cocktail Book, a collection of 750 cocktails, was first published in 1930 and is still in print today. He is sometimes credited with creating a number of classic cocktails, including the famous Corpse Reviver #2 and White Lady.

While at the Savoy, Craddock co-founded the United Kingdom Bartenders' Guild in 1934. In 1938, he moved to the Dorchester Hotel and then the Browns Hotel, retiring in 1947. He died in 1963 and was buried in a pauper's grave.

Sources

  • Williams, Olivia (2014). Gin Glorious Gin:How Mother's Ruin Became the Spirit of London. London: Headline Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-4722-1534-5.
The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article on 24 May 2020. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.