Served in Intelligence Corps during second world war; lost leg in motorbike accident, leaving army to work in commercial property; associated with developer Harry Hyams, with whom he acquired the Baranquilla Railway and Pier Company in 1956, using it as a vehicle for their property transactions; Fenston's developments included the Empress State Building in Earls Court, the BP head-office building in the Barbican, and the Kensington's Royal Garden Hotel; by 1959 he was involved in three separate quoted property companies (Eron, Barranquilla, and Alquife) and had made a fortune estimated at £4 million; however a row with Hyams ended their partnership, and in 1963 Fenston founded a new company, Metropolitan and Provincial