Sir Jack Hayward.

Businessman and philanthropist.

Born: June 14, 1923;

Died: January 13, 2015.

The businessman Jack Hayward, who has died in Florida aged 91, amassed a fortune in the Bahamas and gave much away to worthy causes. He bought Wolverhampton Football Club and spent £40m refurbishing the stand and training area. The club was promoted to the Premier League in 2003, only to be relegated the following season. Sir Jack then sold the club for £10 - on the understanding the new owner would continue committing major funds. That caused a rift within his family who thought their potential inheritance had been greatly depleted.

Amongst the substantial properties he owned was the 14,000 acre Dunmaglass estate south of Inverness. Set in spectacular countryside, it has valuable shooting and stalking rights - which Sir Jack greatly improved.

Sir Jack became involved in a local controversy in 1990 when he planned to erect 36 wind turbines close to the summit of Beinn Dubhcharaidh. Both Scottish National Heritage and the John Muir Trust objected and were supported by Sigrid Rausing, the owner of the Coignafearn estate.

Sir Jack justified the scheme no less vigorously, arguing, "it's just nimbyitis ... those pylons are only going to be there for 25 years." The windfarms were erected a decade ago.

Jack Arnold Hayward was the son of the industrialist Sir Charles Hayward and attended Stowe. During the war he flew Dakotas on dangerous supply missions to Burma.

He then joined his father and worked mostly from New York realising that the Bahamas was an area with huge potential for commercial and tourist expansion. He bought substantial plots of the land around the harbour and his initial £1m investment multiplied many times as the shares rose dramatically on the New York Stock Exchange.

In 1968, to his later great regret, Sir Jack donated funds to the Liberal Party to help with Jeremy Thorpe's election campaign. When Thorpe was accused of arranging for the murder of his lover Norman Scott Sir Jack had to prove his money did not pass through intermediaries to fund the Scott deal. Wisely, Sir Jack had kept all the correspondence which proved conclusively the money was for the party. The judge described Hayward as "a nice, respectable witness".

Sir Jack gave generously to various UK charities - not for nothing was he called Union Jack. He funded the return to Bristol from the Falkland Islands of Brunel's SS Great Britain. He donated money to the England women's cricket team, the round-the-world yachtsman Sir Chay Blyth, the rebuilding of a hospital destroyed in the Falklands War, the Gurkahs and bought Lundy Island as a nature reserve for the National Trust.

He also established a charming tradition in the Bahamas. Each time a Royal Navy ship arrived at Freeport, his red London double decker bus and London taxi were waiting on the quayside for the entire ship company's use.

Hayward was knighted in 1986. He married Jean Forder in 1948 from whom he was separated. He is survived by his two sons and a daughter.

ALASDAIR STEVEN