Margie Moffat OBE
Driving force behind Scotland’s first major travel business and a generous trust fund
n Margie Moffat OBE, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Born: 8 August, 1922, in Ayrshire. Died: 25 October, 2014, in Ayrshire, aged 92.
MARGIE Moffat was one of Scotland’s most generous benefactors. She and her husband Jim founded the hugely successful travel agency AT Mays and were acknowledged as shrewd and able entrepreneurs. They built up the firm with a keen eye on commercial opportunities and financial prudence. From a single office in Saltcoats in 1955 – originally called All Travel – the firm became one of the largest travel agencies in the UK, expanding to become the third largest in the UK.
In 1988 the Moffat family sold out to the Royal Bank of Scotland and with a bequest from Jim’s estate the family set up the Moffat Charitable Trust.
In addition, Margie made a substantial donation to the trust in 2007. One of its great projects was the Moffat Centre at Glasgow Caledonian University, which is now recognised as an influential voice in the tourist industry. More than a million students have greatly benefited from Margie’s foresight and generosity.
The first beneficiary of Margie’s 2007 donation was the Princess Royal Trust for Carers in Scotland which received £1 million. The acting dean of the Glasgow Business School, Professor John Lennon, told The Scotsman yesterday: “Margie Moffat was a pathfinder for women in travel and a critical part of the success of the growth of AT Mays along with her late husband.
“She helped the business grow at a phenomenal rate and the stable of AT Mays was the starting point for so many careers in travel and tourism.”
Margie had always preferred a quiet life in Ayrshire – with a fine view over the sea to the Isle of Arran – and shunned publicity. When asked in 2007 about the donation to the trust, she said: “It’s more money than I can spend. I can’t even spend the interest. It’s good to make use of it and I think Jim would have approved.”
Margie Moffat met her husband when they were both pupils at Ardrossan Academy in the late 1930s. He was a member of the 1st XV and they went out for a couple of years before the war. He served in the RAF and was posted to the accounts department within the RAF at Ardrossan.
They married in 1944 but even with two children to look after Margie never countenanced not working. The Moffats worked in close harmony and by their canny stewardship of affairs the company prospered: both were innovators and keen to explore new tourist trends.
Margie was the person who had the idea to create AT Mays and it was her enthusiasm and energy that got the business established. Her husband worked for some years in a bank and ran a pet shop, All Pets. He was a lover of animals and an authority on budgies.
The idea to start a travel agency came to them by chance when Jim had been asked to judge a bird show in the US. They were given out of date brochures by a local company: “Goodness me,” said Margie, immediately spotting an opportunity.
Their agency proved successful from the outset and benefited from the charter flights run by Freddie Laker to Spain. Within a couple of years AT Mays was operating throughout Scotland and, by 1982, had offices across the UK.
Margie ran the firm’s accounts department and was a company director so her responsibili- ties were considerable. She had the knack of being a successful businesswoman and a devoted mother. “I’d cook about five meals at the weekend and then heat them up at home each night,” She once recalled.
Margie loved the buzz generated in a busy office and being surrounded by youngsters and gossip. “When I retired that’s what I missed most of all. They kept me young.”
Her son Dr Jamie Moffat said in his eulogy: “Mum was the controlling force as Dad wished to expand the business. She slowed down the process to a level where the team could continue to maintain the high standards of service our customers were expecting.”
In 1988 the family accepted RBS equity in the takeover. When the shares reached a peak of £6 in 2007 the family fortunes were worth around £100 million. But disaster struck in 2008 with the demise of RBS and the shares slumped.
Over the years the trust has given generously to numerous Scottish institutions including the National Museums of Scotland, Cancer UK, Scottish Ballet and many local Ayrshire events such as Scottish Music’s Hit The Road, the Elite Ayrshire Business Circle, the Ayrshire Hospice and the Scarecrow Festival.
Professor Lennon added: “Mrs Moffat’s active role in the trust over 16 years was instrumental in the development of a range of projects from the Craft town development of West Kilbride to the support of the Moffat Centre at Glasgow Caledonian University.
“Indeed, the trust has helped over 160 young people via scholarship grants since 1999 and constitutes the largest such programme in the European Union. Those scholars that have gone forward with careers in the sector are a testament to Mrs Moffat’s generosity and vision for a vital sector of Scotland’s economy.”
Margie Moffat’s husband died in 1998. She was awarded an OBE in the 2010 and is survived by their son. A daughter predeceased her. National day of Algeria. 1512: The world’s most famous ceiling was unveiled in the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo had not wanted to do it, because he felt himself to be a sculptor, not a painter. It took him four and a half years to complete, working alone. 1695: The Bank of Scotland was founded. 1755: An earthquake reduced two-thirds of Lisbon to rubble – it was said that 60,000 died. 1912: British Army introduced the Vickers machine gun. 1927: Betting tax was first levied in Britain. Two days later, the bookies went on strike at Windsor in protest. 1929: The Pony Club movement was founded in Britain. 1936: Benito Mussolini proclaimed Rome-Berlin axis. 1945: Britain said all evidence indicated that Adolf Hitler had killed himself in Berlin bunker. 1956: Premium bonds first went on sale in Britain. 1961: The body of the disgraced Stalin was removed from Lenin’s Mausoleum in Red Square in Moscow. 1963: In army coup in South Vietnam, president Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated. 1966: Five building workers killed when three-storey steel and concrete framework of Aberdeen University’s new zoology building collapsed in high winds. 1982: Channel 4 television began transmissions. 1990: Sir Geoffrey Howe resigned as Leader of the House of Commons over Margaret Thatcher’s attitude to Europe and ERM. 1991: British Telecom provoked political storm by announcing pre-tax profits of £1.61bn, or £101 per second. 1993: The European Union came into being at midnight with the implementation of the Maastricht Treaty. 1996: There was widespread condemnation of the decision
Scotsman archive
SIR Robert Greig, formerly Secretary to the Department of Agriculture for Scotland, indulged in “a game of guesswork” in a broadcast talk from Edinburgh last night on what rural Scotland would be like 50 years hence. He said: “Let us assume that some day, say 30 years hence, the public conscience will decide that a great and wealthy nation should not acquiesce in the semi-starvation and unhealthiness of a large part to include Rangers player Paul Gascoigne in the England squad after he was involved in wifebeating allegations. 2000: Serbia joined the United Nations. 2002: Royal butler Paul Burrell was cleared at the Old Bailey of stealing items belonging to Princess Diana, after an intervention by the Queen who revealed he had told her he was safeguarding Diana’s possessions. 2010: The Shetland Islands were named as one of the top-ten must-see places for 2011 by the Lonely Planet Travel Guide.
BIRTHDAYS
Toni Collette, actress, 42; Rick Allen, drummer (Def Leppard), 51; Sharron Davies MBE, Olympic swimmer and broadcaster, 52; Larry Flynt, publisher, 72; Michael Kelly, public relations consultant, journalist, Lord Provost of Glasgow 1980-4, 74; Mark Hughes OBE, Welsh footballer and manager, 51; Lyle Lovett, country singer, 57; Jenny McCarthy, actress, model TV presenter, author, 42; Nick Owen, broadcaster, chairman of Luton Town FC, 67; Gary Player, South golfer and course designer, 79.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1694 Francis Hutcheson, Scottish philosopher; 1762 Spencer Perceval, only British prime minister to have been assassinated; 1825 William Whiting, hymn writer; 1887 LS Lowry, artist of industrial Lancashire; 1896 Edmund Blunden, First World War poet; 1947 Gordon Brown, Scotland and British Lions rugby player. Deaths: 1793 Lord George Gordon, anti-Catholic agitator and leader of Gordon Riots in 1780; 1972 Ezra Pound, poet and critic; 1985 Phil Silvers, comedy actor (Sergeant Bilko); 2008 Jacques Piccard, deep sea explorer. of its population if food will save them. Farming will have changed in many of its methods and changed in its organisation. It is unlikely our children will see many fields in stock. Most grain crops will be threshed and dried as they are cut. Hay-making in the fields may be a lost art, and no one who has forked hay through a summer day will regret it. The plough may survive here and there along with a few horses, but petrol, gas and electrical machinery will do most of the work on arable farms.” l