{{Short description|Anglo-Swiss businessman and politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}} '''Sir John Maria Emilio Gatti''' (13 August 1872 – 14 September 1929) was an Anglo-Swiss theatre manager, restaurateur and businessman who was also a prominent Conservative politician in London local government.<ref name=odnb>{{Cite ODNB|last=Barber |first=Peter |title=Sir John Maria Emilio Gatti (1872–1929) in Gatti family (per. 1847–1981), restaurateurs, theatre owners, and entrepreneurs |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/53168/53171?back=,53168 |date = September 2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/53171 |access-date=13 September 2009}}</ref> [[File:Site_of_the_Adelphi_Theatre_Restaurant_owned_by_the_Swiss-Italian_Gatti_family.jpg|thumb|Green plaque marking the site of the Adelphi Theatre Restaurant owned by the Swiss-Italian Gatti family]] Born as '''Giovanni Maria Emilio Gatti''' in Dongio, in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland, he was the eldest son of the entrepreneur Agostino Gatti.<ref name=odnb/><ref name=obit>{{Cite news|title=Sir John Gatti |newspaper=The Times |page=4 |date=16 September 1929 }}</ref> The Gatti family had built up a large family business in Westminster, including the Adelphi and Vaudeville Theatres, a string of cafe-restaurants and the Charing Cross and Strand Electricity Supply Corporation Ltd, which supplied power to most of the West End of London.<ref name=odnb/>
Gatti was educated at Stonyhurst College and St John's College, Oxford, before being called to the bar at the Inner Temple.<ref name=odnb/><ref name=obit/> He married Lily Mary Lloyd in 1897 and they had seven children.<ref name=odnb/> In the same year, his father died, and he took over the family businesses along with his younger brother Rocco Joseph Stefano Gatti.<ref name=odnb/>
His business interests, in particular the construction of electricity infrastructure, led him to become interested in the local government of the capital.<ref name=odnb/> In 1903 he was elected to Westminster City Council as a representative of the Charing Cross ward.<ref>{{Cite news|title=London Borough Council Elections |newspaper=The Times |page=11 |date=4 November 1903}}</ref> He was a member of the Conservative-backed majority Moderate Party on the council, and was elected Mayor of Westminster for 1911–1912.<ref>{{Cite news|title=The Mayoral Elections. List for London and the Country |newspaper=The Times |page=7 |date=10 November 1911}}</ref>
In 1908 he was a founding member of the Society of West End Theatre Managers.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Society of West End Theatre Managers |newspaper=The Times |page=17 |date=24 April 1908}}</ref> In 1919–1920 he was chairman of the society, and was involved in negotiating a standard theatrical contract for West End performers.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Actor's Trade Union, The First Year's Work |newspaper=The Times |page=8 |date=2 January 1920}}</ref>
In 1918, Gatti was co-opted onto the London County Council as a Municipal Reform Party councillor for the Strand division. When elections resumed after World War I, he was elected a councillor for the Westminster Abbey division, holding the seat until his death.<ref>{{Cite news|title=LCC Elections |newspaper=The Times |page=14 |date=8 March 1919}}</ref> Gatti was short-listed to be Official Conservative candidate for the Westminster Abbey by-election in 1924, but lost out to Otho Nicholson who won the poll.<ref>{{Cite news|title=The Abbey Seat, Official Candidate Chosen |newspaper=The Times |page=14 |date=4 March 1924}}</ref>
He served as chairman of the county council's finance committee for six years, and was chairman of the county council in 1927–1928.<ref name=obit/><ref>{{Cite news|title=London County Council. Sale Of Surplus Lands. |work=The Times |page=16 |date=9 March 1927 }}</ref> At the end of his term as chairman, he received a knighthood.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33398 |date=29 June 1928 |page=4410 }}</ref>
Sir John Gatti died suddenly at Littleton Golf Club in September 1929, aged 57.<ref name=obit/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{S-start}} {{S-off}} {{S-bef|before=Sir George Hume}} {{S-ttl|title=Chairman of the London County Council|years=1927–1928}} {{S-aft|after=Cecil Levita}} {{succession box|title=Chairman of the Finance Committee of London County Council|years=1920–1927|before=Alfred Fowell Buxton|after=Angus Scott}} {{S-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gatti, John Maria Emilio}} Category:1872 births Category:1929 deaths Category:Members of London County Council Category:Members of the Inner Temple Category:People educated at Stonyhurst College Category:Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Category:British restaurateurs Category:Municipal Reform Party politicians Category:Members of Westminster Metropolitan Borough Council Category:Mayors of places in Greater London Category:Conservative Party (UK) councillors Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Swiss emigrants to the United Kingdom Category:Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Category:British people of Swiss-Italian descent