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Ambassador of Friendship Stuart Weaving was determined to make a success of his life. After several false starts, this son of a Huddersfield textile worker first made a name for himself as the publisher and editor of a magazine devoted to Rugby Union in South Wales. Widening his interests, he became a sports promoter, exhibition organiser, caterer and broadcaster on radio and television. His career took an unexpected turn when he organised a party of rugby players and supporters to tour South Africa in 1964 with the official Welsh Rugby side. He fell in love with the country, and discovered that there were close bonds between many people in Great Britain and the Republic, he started friendship travel clubs in both countries. Placing the interests of the club members above all else, Weaving’s business boomed and within a few years became an international organisation, with clubs in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Branching into textiles, printing and building, Weaving became a very successful businessman when still in his 40’s. Although he is the epitome of a successful self-made man, Stuart Weaving has had his share of setbacks and tragedy. He became a magazine journalist despite having poor eyesight and a prevailing difficulty with reading. His first wife, Kathleen, died at 46 after a long battle with tuberculosis, while his only son, Mark, was stricken with schizophrenia at 19. Now happily married to Dorothy, who is also his personal secretary, Stuart Weaving disdains the trappings of luxury and considers his money a vehicle for helping others less fortunate than himself. He lives simply and, when not overseeing his Weaving Group of world-wide companies from his Channel Islands home in Jersey, he devotes much of his time to charity, travelling and promoting sporting and cultural tours between Britain and South Africa. Operating purely in his private capacity, he firmly believes that political differences between Governments should not divide the ordinary people of two nations with so many common interests and long historical and cultural ties. He drew international attention in 1981 when he ignored South African pressure groups and brought 70 scarlet-clad Welshmen, the “Jones Choir”, to South Africa to sing in the country’s first non-racial international Eisteddfod. This is the story of a remarkable man, who born in Yorkshire, found success in Wales, fell in love with South Africa, and is a true believer and practitioner of international brotherhood.
Frederick Cleary |
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