WESTON, Mrs Galen (Hilary Mary nee FRAYNE) 1942-2025
Richard R
The Weston's dau Alannah m 2007 Alexander Desmond Sursock b 1973 s&ha of Sir Henry Marc Sursock COCHRANE 4th Bt b 1946, and had [?a son Jude Charlie G. b 2016 reg Q2 Norfolk] and two daus, Maia Sunshine b 2007 reg Q4 Westminster and Lola Maria Skye b 2009 reg Q3 Westminster. [DPB2019 simply says they had an unnamed dau b 2007. It would be useful to check all this with DPB online, if it ever gets fixed!]
Obit in the Times of 4 Sep 2025:
E X T R A C T
Hilary Weston obituary: businesswoman in Selfridges revamp
Dublin-born philanthropist and former model whose eye for fashion and design was invaluable to her husband Galen’s business empire, dies aged 83
… After the family firm bought Selfridges in 2003, Hilary along with her husband Galen Weston — the scion of the Anglo-Canadian business dynasty — and their daughter Alannah spent millions modernising it, and it was named the world’s best department store four times. Her first decision was to open up what had become a rather dowdy interior by stripping out partitions and false canopies hiding Gordon Selfridge’s original Corinthian columns and ornate ceilings, and removing shutters to let in daylight…
… The Westons later sold Selfridges for a reported £4 billion months after Galen died (obituary April 15, 2021)…
… Hilary and Galen never lived in Ireland after 1983, when the Provisional IRA tried to kidnap him from their 17th-century estate in Co Wicklow. Tipped off by police, the family fled before the attack, while the police lay in wait and exchanged fire with seven masked gunmen. Thereafter, they divided their time between England, the US and Canada, revisiting Ireland only for business.
Starting with a Toronto bakery in 1882, the Weston family has made billions out of retailing and property on both sides of the Atlantic…
… When Galen and Hilary returned to live in Canada after the IRA plot, they were soon welcomed into the country’s highest social circles. Prince Charles stayed at their château-style home in the exclusive Forest Hill area of Toronto. In 1998 he took Princes William and Harry for a skiing holiday with the Westons in Whistler, British Columbia. In England, Hilary and Galen bought Fort Belvedere, the Windsor country house where Edward VIII abdicated in 1936. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip attended her 60th birthday party.
In 1996 Hilary was invited by the Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien to put her name forward to be lieutenant-governor of Ontario, the British monarch’s representative in the province. She hesitated because of her personal and business interests, but her family urged her to accept the honour. The following year she became only the second woman to hold the position in that province, and the first from Ireland…
… Hilary Mary Frayne was born in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, in 1942, the eldest of five children of Michael Frayne, a television salesman, and Elizabeth Noel (née Guerrini), who worked in a jewellery shop after Michael died in 1960. She had two brothers, Robert and John (the latter died in 2019). One sister, Josephine, moved to Canada and the other, Deirdre, lives in France…
… They had two children. Alannah, a former journalist, chairs the Galen and Hilary Weston Foundation and chaired Selfridges until 2022. Galen Jr, known in the family as G2…
Hilary Weston, model, businesswoman and philanthropist, was born on January 12, 1942. She died after a long illness on August 2, 2025, aged 83
https://www.thetimes.com/article/37ee84d9-77a4-49fd-840b-e3363677bc34