James H Moffat, Scots businessman: born August 24, 1919, died September 18, 1998

THE expansion of a small shop in Saltcoats, Ayrshire, to become one of the big four travel agencies in the United Kingdom, under the name of AT Mays, is one of the great romantic tales of British business.

Ironically, the man who made it all happen and should have been a household name throughout the land, was happy to remain in the background.

For James H Moffat was a rare individual, without a trace of the vain or the vulgar, a self-effacing man of such principles that you wondered how he survived, let alone prospered, in the rough-and-tumble of the business world.

Jim Moffat was simply the fairest face of capitalism, a wonderful advertisement for decency and integrity and the fact that these virtues need be no handicap to success. On top of that, his impish sense of humour made him a delightful companion, truly one of the most admirable human beings I had encountered in 50 years of journalism.

Yet Jim Moffat's success could hardly have been foreseen. When the family clog-making business in Glasgow's Saltmarket went into decline, his parents moved down the Ayrshire coast to Saltcoats and opened a cafe in Countess Street.

If the son was not academically inclined, their next ambition was banking. So Jim became a reluctant clerk with the National Bank in Saltcoats in 1936, from which he regarded the Second World War as a welcome escape three years later. He served as a pilot during that war but returned to the security of banking, by which time he had married Margie Robertson, a butcher's daughter from Ardrossan.

Unwittingly, Margie played a vital role in the creation of A T Mays. Tired of her husband's moans about banking, she gave him an ultimatum which forced him to think about another livelihood.

But he knew of nothing except budgies, of which he was a successful breeder. So he opened a little shop called All Pets, selling bird seed and dog food! To eke out a living, Margie would run an adjoining little shop selling train tickets and called it All Travel.

It was 1956, when emigration was high and foreign holidays were becoming popular. Jim decided to buy the Kilmarnock branch of the well-established Mays shipping and travel business. Shunning the use of his own name he took the initials of All Travel to create A T Mays - and the misconception that such a man existed.

Jim Moffat's timing was immaculate, starting a phenomenal success story which took the company to nearly 300 branches, with a staff of 2200, 300 of which were employed at the headquarters in Saltcoats.

It was a family business which inspired loyalty and brought much prosperity to Ayrshire.

After 30 years, and in a changing world, Jim decided in 1987 to sell a majority stake to the Royal Bank of Scotland, which was keen to diversify. He and his son Jamie continued to lead the company, a role which Jamie maintained even when the bank later sold AT Mays to Carlson of America.

He and his father resumed business on their own just last year when, happily, they returned to the original Saltcoats shop as A T M Travel. The story had come full cycle.

For all his success and undoubted wealth, Jim Moffat remained totally unaffected. His philanthropy was discreet but he could not escape the publicity of resuscitating Kilmarnock Football Club from extinction. Bankruptcy was just hours away when Jim, who had no previous interest in football, offered to help. The banks were delighted and, if the truth be known, he spent #2m to turn the club around and pointed towards its recent triumphs, which included victory in last year's Scottish Cup. He assumed the chairmanship for a time and remained the 80% shareholder.

Earlier this year he endowed and financed a chair of travel and tourism at Caledonian University.

In 1995, when the British travel industry created a Hall of Fame, Jim Moffat stood alongside Charles Forte as one of the first to be honoured. In June this year he was awarded the OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

He and Margie, whose home in West Kilbride has a magnificent view of Arran, allowed themselves the luxury of regular cruises. At the end of their latest trip, they had left the Silver Wind at Barcelona on Friday and were in the British Airways lounge, en route for home, when he collapsed and died.

Jim Moffat, who was 79, is survived by Margie and Jamie and was predeceased by his only daughter Margaret.