Jack Hayward

[2] At the outbreak of the Second World War, he cycled to Oxford to volunteer to fight, eventually joining the Royal Air Force (RAF).

He served first as a pilot officer in 671 Squadron operating under South East Asia Command (SEAC) in India, flying Dakota transporter aircraft for the supply of the 14th Army in Burma.

[1] After demobilisation he began work in Rotary Hoes, part of the Firth Cleveland group of companies formed by his father, Sir Charles Hayward, as an agricultural equipment salesman in South Africa.

In addition to his home in Freeport, in England he owned a farm in Sussex and in Scotland was Laird of Dunmaglass, a 14,000-acre estate near Inverness.

[3] It is estimated that he spent well in excess of £70m of his personal finance on redeveloping their Molineux Stadium, writing off annual debts, and purchasing players for the club during the 17 years in which he was the owner.

In the event, they only managed one season at the highest level (2003–04), despite his riches having enabled Wolves to invest in many players who would normally have been beyond the financial reach of non-Premier League clubs.

Other such benefactors include Jack Walker (Blackburn Rovers), Lionel Pickering (Derby County), Steve Gibson (Middlesbrough) and Dave Whelan (Wigan Athletic).

[3] He funded three international racing yachts, Great Britain I, II and III, spent £100,000 on saving the sloop Gannet (the Royal Navy's only survivor of the transition from sail to steam) and contributed another £100,000 to help raise the Mary Rose.

Hayward was a donor to the Liberal Party in the 1970s, having met its leader Jeremy Thorpe (one of the West Country MPs who campaigned to get Lundy Island purchased for the nation) in 1969.

[1] In a 2003 interview with Sathnam Sanghera, Hayward said of his political views, "If I had my way, I'd form my own party far more right-wing than Margaret Thatcher.

I'd bring back National Service, the Scaffold, the cat o' nine tails, the Empire—places like Sierra Leone and Nigeria were so much better off under British rule than they are now.

Back in Britain, Hayward drove a Range Rover bearing the bumper sticker: “Buy abroad — sack a Brit”.

[9] With his crumpled clothes and pockets stuffed with bits of paper, it was observed of Hayward that he looked “more like an absent-minded retired geography teacher than one of the richest men in the world”.

In January 2011 Hayward was in a court battle for over £100 million of his own personal fortune, after being sued by his daughter Susan Heath, then aged 62, elder son Rick, 59, and six of his grandchildren after they had been removed as beneficiaries from trusts set up by him.