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
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.Â
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.Â
That is invaluable.Â
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article