Previously executive chairman of DFS Furniture Company Ltd, Kirkham is a strong political and financial supporter of the Conservative Party, and is one of South Yorkshire's richest men, with a personal fortune estimated at £1 billion.

[3] Adopted at the age of three weeks, he is the only son of Edlington miner Tom Kirkham and his wife Elsie: "My whole life has been the luck of going to a good family.

[4] In 1969, having visited a few manufacturers in his daily work, he decided that making furniture was relatively easy and that by cutting out the warehouse dealers in the middle of the supply chain, he could sell direct to the public at cheaper prices.

The burglars bound and gagged the housekeeper and made off with money and jewels worth £2.4m – later recovered, but still South Yorkshire's largest armed robbery.

[4] In September 1996 Kirkham told The Daily Telegraph that his donations were not "anything at all like that sort of magnitude", and that the £4m had in fact been a loan to the party from his son Michael which was repaid a few weeks later.

Kirkham was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in the 2001 Birthday Honours for services to the Duke of Edinburgh's Award and the Outward Bound Trust[19] and Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to the Duke of Edinburgh's Award.

[4] Kirkham has two houses in his native South Yorkshire, one in Cadeby Road, Sprotbrough; and Grade II*-listed Georgian mansion Cantley Hall which he bought in 1990 from motor dealer John Carnell.

Neighbours complained about both a wall Kirkham built to protect his privacy, as well as the noise from a 1998 fireworks party at which the singer was Elaine Paige.

In 1997 Kirkham lent works by Édouard Manet and Orazio Gentileschi to the Getty Center in Brentwood, Los Angeles.

With Lord Harris of Peckham, he is co-owner of the "Hello" horses: Hello Sanctos, Hello Mr President, Hello M'Lady, Hello Sailor, Hello Unique and Hello Boyo, which are ridden by Scott Brash.