Aleck Crichton
Irish Guards officer who revived the family’s distilling business
ALECK CRICHTON, who has died aged 98, served with the Irish Guards in the Second World War and subsequently played a leading part in modernising the Irish distilling business.
In 1946, soon after he was demobilised, Crichton started work in Dublin in his mother’s family business, John Jameson & Son. After the First World War, Irish whiskey had lost its position to Scotch as the market leader in Britain and America but Crichton had an entrepreneurial outlook and responded to the challenge.
Setting about reinvigorating the brand involved him in extensive travel. He eventually became managing director and, in 1966, he organised a merger between John Jameson, John Power & Son and Cork Distilleries to form the Irish Distillers Group. It was the culmination of his vision for modernising the entire Irish distilling industry.
Alexander Cochrane Crichton was born in Dublin on May 9 1918. He was the son of a doctor and the grandson of Andrew Jameson, the Irish politician and head of the whiskey distillers, John Jameson & Son.
Brought up in Dublin, Beltra in Co Sligo, and in England, he was educated at Uppingham and King’s College, Cambridge, where he read Economics and climbed buildings under cover of darkness. In 1939, he joined the Irish Guards and, having been posted to the 2nd Bn (2 IG), he landed on Gold Beach, Normandy, in June 1944 with the second wave of troops.
The battalion was equipped with Sherman tanks and Crichton, as adjutant, was the link between the CO and brigade headquarters. He was involved in fierce fighting in the region’s bocage and in one engagement, between Bayeux and Caen, his division was caught between German artillery and anti-tank guns.
The enemy units, he said afterwards, “were almost impossible to see and our shells simply bounced off the armour of the Tiger tanks. ” More than 20 tanks in his column were set ablaze and there were heavy casualties. In August, near Caen, a salvo of mortar shells landed close to the regimental aid post and he was severely wounded. He rejoined his battalion several months later and after the end of the war was stationed in Germany.
Crichton was elected a member of the Court of the Bank of Ireland and served a two-year term as governor between 1962 and 1964. For several years, he was president of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the Post Office Users’ Council.
His feeling for the importance of the European Community found expression in his appointment as the European director of Irish Distillers. He was president of the International Federation of Wines and Spirits from 1985 to 1987. In his 98th year, the French government recognised his contribution to the liberation of France by making him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.
On his retirement from business in the mid-1980s, he took up sheep farming at Carrowgarry, Co Sligo. He enjoyed raising sheep and was happy haggling over prices, which he described as “great sport.”
He began working for the Yeats Society began when his wife’s uncle, Professor Tom Henn, set up the Summer School and stayed at Carrowgarry. Crichton became president of the Society and his involvement continued into his midnineties.
He was a founder member of the Irish Mountaineering Club and his daughters remember him marking a scratch in the rock for each foothold when he was teaching them to climb. Music was another enthusiasm and he was an accomplished pianist.
He served on the board of directors of the Research and Education Foundation of Sligo University Hospital.
In 1940, Aleck Crichton married Joan Helen Brachi. She predeceased him and he is survived by their four daughters.
Aleck Crichton, born May 9 1918, died April 18 2017