James William "Jimi" Heselden
OBE (27 March 1948 – 26 September 2010) was a British entrepreneur.
A former coal miner, Heselden became wealthy by manufacturing the
Hesco bastion
The Concertainer, known colloquially as the HESCO MIL, Hesco barrier, or Hesco bastion, is a modern gabion primarily used for flood control and military fortifications. It is made of a collapsible wire mesh container and heavy duty fabric liner, ...
barrier system. In 2009, he bought
Segway Inc., maker of the
Segway personal transport system. Heselden died in 2010 from injuries apparently sustained falling from a cliff while riding his own product. His estate, bequeathed to his widow and family, was worth over £340 million and he was ranked in the top 400 members of the ''
Sunday Times Rich List
The ''Sunday Times Rich List'' is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families resident in the United Kingdom ranked by net wealth. The list is updated annually in April and published as a magazine supplement by British national Sunday news ...
''.
Early life
Heselden grew up in the
Halton Moor
Halton Moor is a district of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, about three miles east of Leeds city centre close to the A63. It is situated between Killingbeck to the north, Temple Newsam to the south, Osmondthorpe to the west and Halton a ...
district of
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
, West Yorkshire, England. At the age of 15, Heselden left
Osmondthorpe
Osmondthorpe a district of east Leeds in West Yorkshire, England is considered part of the Halton Moor district.
It is situated in the LS9 Leeds postcode area, two miles (3 km) to the east of Leeds city centre between East End Park and ...
Secondary Modern School
A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Schools of this type continue in Northern Ireland, where they are usually ...
to work as a labourer and then at collieries in
Temple Newsam
Temple Newsam (historically Temple Newsham), () is a Tudor- Jacobean house in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with grounds landscaped by Capability Brown.
The estate lends its name to the Temple Newsam ward of Leeds City Council, in which it ...
and
Lofthouse.
He lost his job in the wave of redundancies that followed the
1984–85 miners' strike and spent his
redundancy money on renting a workshop and, at first, setting up a
sandblasting
Sandblasting, sometimes known as abrasive blasting, is the operation of forcibly propelling a stream of abrasive material against a surface under high pressure to smooth a rough surface, roughen a smooth surface, shape a surface or remove su ...
business.
He then worked on developing and patenting a collapsible wire mesh and fabric container, now called
Hesco bastion
The Concertainer, known colloquially as the HESCO MIL, Hesco barrier, or Hesco bastion, is a modern gabion primarily used for flood control and military fortifications. It is made of a collapsible wire mesh container and heavy duty fabric liner, ...
, to be used for building flood management and to limit erosion.
Career
In 1989, Heselden founded Hesco Bastion Ltd to manufacture containers of the same name;
filled with sand or earth, they quickly found favour with the armies of several countries, as they allowed effective blast walls, barriers and
revetment
A revetment in stream restoration, river engineering or coastal engineering is a facing of impact-resistant material (such as stone, concrete, sandbags, or wooden piles) applied to a bank or wall in order to absorb the energy of incoming water
...
s to be quickly constructed. Made in Hesco's factory in Leeds, these were shipped (flat-packed) in great numbers to conflict zones, including
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
and
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, as well as later being used for
flood defences
Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water level ...
at
.
He was appointed
Officer of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(OBE) in the 2006
Queen's Birthday Honours
The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning British monarch's official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals. The honours are present ...
, "for services to the
Defence industry
The arms industry, also known as the arms trade, is a global industry which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology. It consists of a commercial industry involved in the research and development, engineering, production, and s ...
and to Charity."
On Christmas day 2009, Heselden purchased the
Segway
The Segway is a two-wheeled, self-balancing personal transporter invented by Dean Kamen and brought to market in 2001 as the Segway HT, subsequently as the Segway PT, and manufactured by Segway Inc. ''HT'' is an initialism for "human transp ...
company. He had owned the company for only nine months at the time of his accidental death while using a Segway.
Philanthropy
In 2008, Heselden donated £1.5 million to the
Help For Heroes
Help for Heroes (H4H) is a British charity which provides lifelong recovery support to British Armed Forces service personnel who have been wounded or injured in the line of duty, and to their families, originally only since 11 September 2001, th ...
fund through a charity auction bid for nine people to fly with the
Red Arrows
The Red Arrows, officially known as the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, is the aerobatics display team of the Royal Air Force based at RAF Waddington. The team was formed in late 1964 as an all-RAF team, replacing a number of unofficial teams ...
.
Heselden said, "There are people out there who are making money and when times are good I honestly believe people have a moral obligation to use their wealth to help others."
Also in 2008, Heselden contributed £10 million to setting up the Leeds Community Foundation; he would later donate an additional £13 million.
Death
On the morning of 26 September 2010, Heselden was killed when he fell from a cliff footpath into the
River Wharfe
The River Wharfe ( ) is a river in Yorkshire, England originating within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. For much of its middle course it is the county boundary between West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire. Its valley is known as Wharfedale.
...
, at the village of
Thorp Arch near
Boston Spa
Boston Spa is a Village and civil parish in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. Situated south of Wetherby, Boston Spa is on the south bank of the River Wharfe which separates it from Thorp Arch. According to th ...
. Along the path, "a rugged country version" of Segway was found.
The West Yorkshire Coroner concluded that Heselden had died of "multiple blunt force injuries of the chest and spine consistent with a fall whilst riding a gyrobike".
See also
*
List of unusual deaths
This list of unusual deaths includes unique or extremely rare circumstances of death recorded throughout history, noted as being unusual by multiple sources.
Antiquity
Middle Ages
Renaissance
Early modern period
19th centur ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heselden, Jimi
Businesspeople from Leeds
English philanthropists
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Accidental deaths in England
Accidental deaths from falls
1948 births
2010 deaths
People from Halton Moor
20th-century British philanthropists
20th-century English businesspeople