BUSINESSMAN Bryan Scholes worked alongside Lord Hanson on one of Huddersfield’s leading charities.

Former Heywood Williams managing director Mr Scholes, 95, undertook extensive work for Huddersfield Common Good Trust, a charity which continues to raise funds for good causes in Huddersfield and last year gave away around £45,000.

He was born in July, 1914, in Birkby – one of five boys – and the family later lived in Highburton and then Knowle Grove in Mirfield.

This was a Victorian mill owner’s house with an extensive vegetable and fruit garden which inspired Bryan’s lifelong love of gardening.

Educated at the Quaker school in Ackworth near Pontefract, in 1935 Mr Scholes met Joan Reeve at a dance in Huddersfield and they were married in Mirfield Parish Church in 1939.

His grandfather, William Heywood, had broken away from the glazing firm of Helliwells, in Brighouse, where he worked and set up his own glazing firm, W H Heywood and Sons Ltd in Birkby. Bryan started as tea boy and eventually became managing director.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, although keen to join up, he was not accepted on health grounds.ŠHe joined the Special Constables and later the factory in Birkby was commissioned to build Bailey Bridges for the Normandy landings on D Day.

His ambitious nature led to an amalgamation with Helliwells – the company his grandfather had left all those years before. A decade or so later, he negotiated a merger with a much larger company, Williams and Williams of Chester, becoming managing director and chairman of the newly-formed Heywood Williams PLC which became a renowned building materials supplier with business interests in the USA, South Africa and Canada as well as Britain.

Other business interests included managing retail glass and china business Neaversons Ltd, of Huddersfield.

For many years, he was an active member of the Huddersfield Chamber of Commerce, becoming its chairman and a member of Huddersfield Borough Club.

In 1955 he moved to Thornthwaite in North Yorkshire and was a successful farmer in Nidderdale and an active member of the scout movement.

He is survived by his wife, Joan, his four daughters, Susan, Tina, Alice and Stella, 10 grandchildren and 18 great grandchildren.