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Death of respected Herefordshire businesswoman, Mary McHarg (From Hereford Times)
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Death of respected Herefordshire businesswoman, Mary McHarg
8:00am Friday 5th February 2010
A WELL-known business leader has died after a short illness at the age of 88.
Mary McHarg (nee Biddle), the former managing director of Hereford-based Aeroparts Engineering Company and Westland Motors, was born in Kingsland and educated in Leominster.
She joined Aeroparts as a junior secretary before the outbreak of the Second World War, becoming company secretary and managing director in 1962.
She was responsible for taking the company through a public share flotation.
Although it was subsequently taken over by Pillar Engineering Holdings and then mining giant Rio Tinto, she remained managing director until her retirement in 1986 when Aeroparts merged with Peak Engineering.
She became a founding member of the Herefordshire Group Training Association in 1967 and served on both regional and national councils of the Engineering Employers’ Federation.
She remained involved in the wider community and was an active member of many local charities including the Children’s Society.
For many years she served as a governor of Broadlands Primary School, Aylestone School and Hereford College of Technology.
She was also a Trustee of the Hereford Municipal Charities and after her retirement became a director of the Hereford Enterprise Agency, an organisation helping young entrepreneurs.
She regularly attended the Woman of the Year awards in London and was a director of the family property company.
“Her career began before equal opportunities and women’s rights in the workplace, but was never held back because of prejudice,”
said her son Alistair McHarg.
“She believed in progress and success through merit not legislation.”
After being widowed in 2000 she took up farming and acquired a livestock farm in Shropshire from where her family originated.
She leaves son Alistair, daughter- in-law Bridget and two granddaughters.
Her funeral will take place at St Paul’s Church, Tupsley, on February 16 at 1.15pm.
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Mary McHarg, who has died at the age of 88, had interests in engineering, education, local charities and livestock farming.
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