Sir Jack Hayward was born in Wolverhampton, UK in 1925 and volunteered for the RAF in 1941. He first trained in Yorkshire. Later he joined 5 BFTS Riddle Field, Clewiston, Florida as a trainee pilot on Course 17. Among many other postings he was eventually posted with 671 Squadron in South East Asia where he flew Dakota transporters on the hazardous supply route to the 14th Army in Burma.



While flying in India he crashed his Tiger Moth when trying out a “my next trick is impossible!” manoeuvre. All that survived were Haywood and the propeller, which took pride of place later in his office in Freeport. He was demobbed as Flight Lieutenant in 1946.



In 1950s, then living in the Bahamas, he persuaded his father to invest into the Freeport development, the Grand Bahama Port Authority, where he became vice president and in 1976 chairman. Publicly and privately generous, Jack was a philanthropist and supported island life in the Bahamas.



He was fiercely patriotic to Great Britain and bought Lundy Island, Devon, for the National Trust, financed Chay Blyth’s Great Britain yachts and funded two tours of the England Women’s cricket team to the West Indies.



Sir Jack was Laird of Dunmaglass near Inverness, Scotland and also owned a farm in Sussex.



Always keen on sport he became owner and chairman of Wolverhampton Wanderers and a life member of Surrey County Cricket Club. He was awarded an OBE in 1968 and knighted in 1986.



Sir Jack died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in January 2015.