'Glad to have helped': Ten years on from Sir Jack Hayward's Wolves send off

But then, in keeping with the atmosphere of the rest of the day, loud and spontaneous applause.

Followed by, in what became another regular chorus of the time, ‘he’s one of our own.’

It is ten years on Monday since the funeral service of Sir Jack Hayward, lifelong Wulfrunian, philanthropist extraordinaire and proud Wolves owner.

In scenes rarely witnessed in Wolverhampton previously, and certainly not since, the city came to a complete standstill.

Thousands of fans swarmed the streets to pay their respects both before and after the service, and, from the moment the cortege set out from Molineux, ensured that Sir Jack’s final journey would be one of celebration as well as sadness.

“If he was away, on one of his cruises, Sir Jack would always phone on a matchday and ask the same questions about the team and who was in the Director’s Box,” Baroness Rachael Heyhoe-Flint told the congregation in her sparkling address a decade ago.

“And one of those questions would also be about the attendance.

“Today I can certainly say it’s a full house, a packed attendance, with no empty seats.”

Not just inside St Peter’s either. Thousands of people gathered in front of a big screen installed in Queen Square to watch the live stream of events from inside the church.  At times you could have heard a pin drop. At others, there was both laughter and applause.

“The arrangements for his funeral were probably the most complex of any I dealt with whilst at St Peter’s, and the attendance was definitely the largest the church has seen in many years – perhaps ever,” says the then Rector of Wolverhampton and Wolves club chaplain Rev David Wright, who led the service.

“With 600 people in the church, thousands joining us by video link from outside and yet more watching online, it was obvious just how much Sir Jack meant to so many people in Wolverhampton and beyond.

“During his lifetime, Sir Jack showed great support and generosity to both St Peter’s Collegiate Church and St John’s in the Square, and so when he died our church communities, alongside all those connected with Wolves, had good reason to be thankful for all that he did for us and to celebrate his life.”

It was, most definitely, a celebration, and a fitting tribute and epitaph to a life so well lived.  And a story which has, understandably, been so often told.

Born in Wolverhampton and brought up within a stone’s throw of Molineux, the Hayward family’s fortunes were built around the Black Country engineering firm Firth Cleveland. Sir Jack would end up taking the success of the company to new and incredible heights, overseeing expansion into America before ultimately moving the firm’s administration to the Bahamas.  

It was there that he linked up with American industrialist Wallace Groves and persuaded his father – Sir Charles Hayward – to invest in the Freeport project, turning swampland on Great Bahama island into an industrial centre and deep water port.

Sir Jack was appointed vice-president of the Grand Bahama Port Authority, and the project proved a roaring success, attracting businesses and tourists alike, helping his own personal fortune to take off.

Not that he kept that newly found wealth to himself, of course. Far from it.  An adulthood littered with philanthropy – both varied and substantial – soon put paid to that!

And whilst his work took him all over the world, his core essence always remained British, supporting British projects, or projects involving British people or heritage.

He helped rescue Brunel’s ship – the SS Great Britain - paying for it to be towed from the Falkland Islands to Bristol, as well as helping the National Trust buy Lundy Island, off the north Devon coast.

He also spent £1m to restore the fire-damaged Falklands Islands hospital and a further £1m to dependants of those who had died in the fighting. As well as £500,000 to help the Vulcan XH558 bomber back into the sky, with its final ever flight eventually taking place in tribute to Sir Jack, six months after his death.

He answered a call from Heyhoe-Flint to sponsor the England women’s cricket team and then the first World Cup in 1973, a full two years before the men’s equivalent, in what would ultimately prove the launchpad to a formidable working partnership.

“I asked him why he said yes and decided to sponsor us,” Heyhoe-Flint would tell the congregation at his funeral.

“He said it was because he loved women…and he adored cricket.”

Much of Sir Jack’s extraordinary generosity also centred closer to home, where his heart remained, always, in Wolverhampton.

In the late 1980s, he offered to double a donation of £10,000 for a new sports hall at St Dominic’s Girls School in Brewood, if the headmistress, Sister Helen Watson, could name Wolves 1939 FA Cup Final team at a special assembly to mark the occasion.  Of course she could, because Sir Jack had already asked Heyhoe Flint to prime her 24 hours before. Rarely was a stone left unturned.

By this time, he had already spent an annual fee of £5,000 on an executive box in the John Ireland Stand for a total of three years, allowing disabled young people to use it in his absence, and enjoy the thrill of watching first team football at Molineux.

Ah, Molineux. His beloved Molineux. Where, in his greatest act of generosity for his home-town Wolves, he spent an initial £2.1million to take ownership of the club in 1990, not only bringing an end to the uncertainty of a fractious decade, but, for the subsequent 17 years, spending a small fortune not only on new players but on rebuilding a stadium which had become a sad and derelict relic of its former glories.

The house that Sir Jack built. Which even included his own flat, thus meaning his regular and sometimes lengthy visits to WV1 could be spent within the premises itself.  Back where he belonged. Usually with a bagful of shopping from ‘the ASDA’ lovingly prepared by Wolves’ legendary historian Graham Hughes, which would always feature a packet of ‘Wiltshire ham’.

Taking all of those acts of benevolence into account, and ultimately that is probably still only the half of it, Sir Jack’s funeral was designed not only to be a commemoration and respect for his incredible life, but also a tribute and celebration to all that he achieved.

It was all meticulously planned in a short space of time, following his passing in the Bahamas, after a period of ill health, at the age of 91.

He died on the day of an FA Cup replay between Wolves and Fulham, in its own way fitting given his love of that particular competition, which prompted a very different play-list to normal on that snowy night at Molineux, with ‘The Wonder of You’ back in the schedule alongside plenty of Edward Elgar.  There were also memorable scenes at the first home league game after his passing against Blackpool, which turned into another major tribute to his life. One where the footballing family came together.

For his final send-off, Joseph Edwards & Son funeral directors, who had also arranged the ceremony for Stanley Matthews, were detailed with the overall planning of the day, as part of a strong team effort also featuring a Wolves contingent – notably Lin Kennings and Babette Moxey –  the City of Wolverhampton Council, and St Peter’s Collegiate Church.

And the day began in the most poignant way imaginable.  

Having first visited Molineux by crawling under the turnstiles as a toddler, some nine decades later Sir Jack spent his final night before being laid to rest in the solitude of the home dressing room, his coffin safely protected at the place he loved to call home, in the dressing room of his heroes.

Then, with fans packed inside the stadium as he began his final journey past the Billy Wright Stand and through the city centre to St Peter’s, came the applause, the throwing of flowers and scarves, and a flypast from a Lynx Helicopter and a 671 Squadron Army Air Corps.

That was Sir Jack’s regiment during the Second World War, after he cycled to Oxford to volunteer his services, joining the RAF and, following training in Yorkshire and Florida, serving as a pilot officer and later flight lieutenant, flying missions over India and Burma.

It was, therefore, also hugely fitting that it was service personnel from the RAF who acted as pallbearers for the funeral, transporting the coffin into and out of the church and then on to a private cremation.

The service itself, as Rev Wright reflects, “encapsulated so many elements of Sir Jack’s character”.

“The funeral cars had to be Jaguars, there was a union flag (perfect for Union Jack himself), the RAF were involved, the hymns were his favourites, and we had a rendition of ‘We’ll meet again’, the Vera Lynn classic,” Rev Wright continued.

“The funeral service itself was a mixture of the dignity necessary for such an occasion, wonderful memories shared by those who knew him best, and that real sense of fun, perhaps even mischief, that was one of Sir Jack’s hallmarks.

“I remember he would pull my leg at times, and yet, like so many others, I knew he always had my back.

“And so, there were tears because of his loss but also smiles because of the many memories.

“All in all, it was a thanksgiving for - and a celebration of - a life well lived and a legacy generously left to the city and the club. The ceremony was as unique as Sir Jack.”

That sense of mischief also extended to the service itself, which featured a slight issue with lowering the coffin onto its stand at the start of the service.

“A soft landing,” quipped Sir Jack’s son Jonathan, who, along with brother Rick, delivered two of the readings.

“That was Sir Jack, playing a trick,” added Heyhoe Flint, who herself sadly passed away two years later, with her funeral also attracting a packed house at St Peter’s.

“He would not have wanted us to be miserable,” she insisted.

“I worked closely with Sir Jack for 45 years, and he often reminded me of a naughty schoolboy!

“He was a naughty boy who wanted to be caught, because what was the point of playing tricks if no one found out about it?

“He wasn’t academically minded, he failed to get into Tettenhall College and got nought out of 100 for maths at Stowe School.

“But he ended up doing alright for himself, didn’t he?”

There were some similarly minded words from rock legend Robert Plant who, like Heyhoe Flint, was made a Vice-President by Sir Jack.

He referenced not only the time shared in their respective capacities at Molineux, but also the fact that Sir Jack’s patronage helped bring Wolves out of the wilderness which had nearly catapulted them out of business in the turbulent early Eighties.

“All that we know of him is chronicled publicly, and far and wide his attention spread down the years,” Plant began.

“And with a twist and a turn, I found myself unexpectedly in Jack’s castle, on Waterloo Road.

“Amid the bright, the noisy and the cheerful, which follows near extinction, he stepped forward through the chaos and uncertainty and nailed a future and a home again, for passion, fervour and pride for this city and beyond.

“With all that was chronicled, I wondered what to make of the President.

“On the occasions that came and went, I got to know, albeit just a little, a force indeed.

“A man with a big life that, even then in his eighth decade, would not be compromised by physical challenges.

“I found a man with a vivid, enquiring mind, kindness and humour, candid, and – I would figure – dauntless.

“I enjoyed my time around him and there is much to be glad for in unexpected meetings along the way – it was his spirit that impressed me the most.”

There was another poignant moment still to come at the end of a reading from Wolves CEO Jez Moxey, who always relished the challenge of working with a personality he described as ‘the most charismatic man that I have ever met’.

“Sir Jack, we miss you,” Moxey concluded.  “Jack, we love you.”

All in all, it was to prove a memorable day, and a fitting send-off, for a true son of Wolverhampton, with guests on the footballing side including not just the present day squad led by Head Coach Kenny Jackett, but club heroes including Ron Flowers, Mike Bailey, John Richards, Steve Bull, Denis Irwin, Mike Stowell, Joleon Lescott and Matt Murray.

A decade on, Sir Jack’s legacy still rings true, not just with much of the stadium developments under his tenure delivered, of course, by Wolverhampton-based Alfred McAlpine, still intact, but also the two majestic statues of Billy Wright and Stan Cullis, now joined, probably much to his chagrin, by one of himself!

Back in the summer of 2023, son Jonathan marked what would have been Sir Jack’s 100th birthday, by purchasing a pair of his famous off-brown suede shoes and placing them by the statue, along with a donation to Wolves Foundation to provide 100 pairs of trainers to deserving participants.

And when it comes to philanthropy, Sir Jack’s final act of benevolence, after spending £70million of his own funds during 17 years as Wolves owner, was to sell to Steve Morgan for just £10, along with the guarantee of investing £30million to the benefit of the club.

On the football front, those 17 years didn’t bring the FA Cup which he so craved, although he did make it to Villa Park for the semi- final defeat against Arsenal in 1998, just 11 days after undergoing heart surgery.

There was, however, the pure, unadulterated glory of the 2003 play-off final victory against Sheffield United at the Millennium Stadium taking Wolves to the Premier League, one of the best two moments of Sir Jack’s life, along with the day he received his pilot wings.

His ‘thumbs up’ gesture when caught on the big screen with Wolves 3-0 to the good in the closing stages of the game remains another of those enduring memories, and not only by its depiction on his statue.

Over a decade later, in what was his last visit to Molineux seven months before his passing, to attend the civic reception to celebrate Wolves’ record-breaking League One title, he took his first look inside the club’s excellent Museum.

On his way out, he spotted the visitors’ book, and wandered over to pen the four words which succinctly explain just why his life was so magnificently celebrated by an entire city ten years ago on Monday.

‘Glad to have helped.’