John H Stewart
| John H Stewart | |
|---|---|
| Official positions held: | |
| FR Co. Director | 16.07.1921 -29.12.1923 |
| FR People | WHR People | |
Sir John Henderson Stewart, Bt.(NWNGR/WHR/FR)
Sir John Henderson Stewart, 1st Baronet (1877 – 6 February 1924) was a Scottish whisky distiller, and one of the group that amalgamated the three railways in 1921.
Stewart was sole partner of Alexander Stewart & Son, whisky distillers, of Dundee, and was also deputy chairman of Sheffield Steel Products. He was created a baronet in the 1920 Birthday Honours.
On 7 February 1924 his body was discovered at Fingask Castle, his Perthshire home, by two businessmen who had come for a meeting with him. He had been shot through the head. He was last seen the previous day by the driver of a taxi which he had taken to the castle, which was otherwise unoccupied at the time, from Dundee. He was deeply in debt at the time, as his business was not doing well and an Edinburgh company in which he also had large interests, Aitken, Melrose & Co Ltd, had collapsed the previous day. An inquest returned a verdict of suicide. He was 44 years old.
On 1 October 1924, one of Stewart's creditors, John Quiller Rowett, to whom he owed nearly £100,000, hanged himself in his London home.[wikipedia 1]
An assessment of his life and involvement with acquiring a controlling interest in the NWNGR, PBSSR, FR, the Snowdon Mountain Tramroad Ltd. and the creation of the WHR with the first two, by Peter Johnson appeared in FR Heritage Group Journal No. 125 Spring 2016.
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