Garry Weston

Garry (Garfield) Howard Weston CBE (April 28, 1927 - February 15, 2002) was a Canadian-born businessman in the United Kingdom. Born in Toronto, Ontario, he was the son of W. Garfield Weston, owner of the George Weston Limited conglomerate headquartered in Toronto. he moved to England at the age of 4 but kept Canadian citizenship.

Garry became managing director of Ryvita, and at the age of 22 he invented the Wagon Wheels biscuit which carried the family name. He left Ryvita in 1952 and co-founded the Weston Biscuit Company in Australia. He returned to the UK to manage Associated British Foods (ABF) which his father had established in 1935 and he had served on its Board of Directors from 1949, taking over as company chairman in 1967. He remained on the board until 2000.

Weston served as head of the W. Garfield Weston Foundation and was a benefactor of numerous philanthropic projects.

He married Mary, daughter of Major-General Sir Howard Kippenberger and they had six children together.

Garry Weston suffered a stroke in 1999 and died in 2002. His son George G. Weston is chief executive of ABF and Guy Weston is chairman of Wittington Investments, Ltd., ABF's major shareholder. His other children are Jana Khayat, Kate Hobhouse, Sophia Mason and Garth Weston

IRA Kidnapping

According to reliable garda sources, ABF decided to pay the IRA IR£2.2m through Control Risks, a London-based security firm. The food company had been told the IRA was planning to kidnap another of its executives, or would attempt to seize Tidey again. The company, which owned the Quinnsworth supermarket chain, decided to cut a deal with the IRA rather than take the risk.

Garry Weston, ABF's then chairman, also feared that his life and his family's safety would remain under threat if the company did not meet the IRA's demands. His brother, Galen, was the subject of an IRA kidnap attempt in 1983. A gang of terrorists surrounded his Wicklow home, but gardai had already tipped off the businessman and he was in London. Galen Weston and his wife, model Hilary Frayne, moved to Canada shortly afterwards.