Hilary Weston, who helped build Penneys and Brown Thomas, has died aged 83

Hilary Weston, the Dublin-born businesswoman who helped build Penneys and Brown Thomas as part of her husband Galen Weston’s family retail empire, has died aged 83.

Ms Weston died in England, where she lived in recent years.

In a statement, her family said she died peacefully, surrounded by her loved ones. They said in keeping with her position as a former lieutenant governor of Ontario, Canada, a state funeral will be held in Toronto later in the year, followed by a memorial in the UK.

She was prominent in the early days of Penneys after the family business bought the ailing Todd Byrne’s department store and established the budget fashion chain.

She is said to have personally overseen the production of clothing for the in-house brand the company introduced early on, Primark, which would ultimately give its name to the wider chain outside Ireland.

She was later prominent in running Brown Thomas for a considerable time after her husband purchased the long-established retailer.

Hilary and Galen Weston at their home in Windsor, Florida

In the years that followed she served as vice-chair of Holt Renfrew, the group’s luxury retail chain in Canada. She held a variety of other positions in the wider family’s interests, which included the conglomerate Associated British Foods (ABF), of which Penneys was a subsidiary; Fortnum & Mason; and Loblaws, the largest food retailer in Canada. She also oversaw a major property development in Florida.

Galen G Weston paid tribute to his mother on Sunday night.

“Our mother lived with unwavering devotion to her family and a belief in the power and importance of community and service. Brilliant, brave, companionate, and beautiful, she brought a touch of magic to everything she did - in her decades of public service, philanthropy and her remarkable business career. Her greatest joy was the life she created for her family and friends - filled with warmth, love, and fun,” he said.

Alannah Weston Cochrane, her daughter, said: “Our mother’s elegance and high standards were matched by her warmth and sense of humour. She loved a challenge, and brought her innate creativity and style to everything she did. But it was her vision, coupled with her enormous capacity for hard work that made her a great female leader. Her insight, wisdom and strength as well as her belief in individuals made almost anything possible.”

Hilary Weston receiving an honorary doctorate from University College Dublin alongside playwright Brian Friel. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill / The Irish Times

Born Hilary Frayne in Dún Laoghaire in 1942, she was the eldest of five children and attended Loreto Abbey, Dalkey.

She started to work as a model in the 1950s and was successful at it, working extensively in Ireland and internationally. She met her future husband after he saw her on a billboard advertisement and had auctioneer Corrie Buckley arrange an introduction. The couple married in 1966.

Having initially settled at the Roundwood Park estate in Wicklow, the family moved to Toronto in 1971 and Ms Weston later became a Canadian citizen.

In August 1983, the IRA attempted to kidnap Mr Weston at Roundwood but An Garda Síochána had apparently been tipped off. The family was not there and five of the kidnappers were arrested during a gunfight with armed police. The family went on to sell the estate and are said to have become more private afterwards.

Mr Weston, who was born in England but brought up in Canada, moved to Ireland in 1962 to establish Power supermarkets. He later took over the Quinnsworth chain before eventually selling the retailer to Tesco in the 1990s.

Brown Thomas subsequently acquired the Switzer group of stores and then Arnotts, the Irish operation becoming part of the Selfridges group, which the family sold in 2021 for a price reported to have exceeded €4 billion.

Penneys, though, which was established by Arthur Ryan with Galen Weston for ABF in 1969, would ultimately represent the Irish business’s greater contribution to the wider group. The company now employs more than 80,000 staff across 17 countries and had sales of close to €11 billion in 2024.

The Sunday Times put the wider family’s fortune at some £17.75 billion in its most recent rich list.

Ms Weston was still involved in various aspects of the business until recent years and played a role well as the many related charitable foundations which had been established to support a range of causes and made donations running into hundreds of millions of euro over the years.

In 1979, she set up the Ireland Fund of Canada, a chapter of Tony O’Reilly’s Ireland Fund, to raise money for good causes here. Between 1997 and 2002 she served as lieutenant governor of Ontario, donating the salary to an initiative to help young people from poor backgrounds into employment. She also authored two successful books on homes and gardens.

She was predeceased by her husband, who died in April 2021, and is survived by their two children, Alannah and Galen jnr, both of whom are involved in the family business.