Iain Maxwell Stewart

When Frederick died a bachelor in 1950, the Thermotank business interests passed to his then 34-year old nephew, Iain, the surviving son of William.[3] In 1959, Iain Stewart became chairman of a holding company, Hall-Thermotank Ltd, formed after a merger with Dartford-based J & E Hall.[4]

Stewart was president of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland during which period he founded the biennial Marlow lectures, which commenced in 1964.[5] The name of the lectures derived from the Marlow Declaration of 1963.[6] Stewart was one of 18 people ("from the churches, the boardrooms, the trade unions and the teaching profession") who met in Marlow over 15 months between November 1961 and February 1963 to discuss social and industrial relations. The Declaration was considered a clear statement of the problems then facing industry.[7] It talked about an ethical approach to business and social issues, stating that industry had five responsibilities, to employees, to shareholders, to consumers, to local community and to the nation.[8] It held that "the most valuable asset of any organization is best measured by the skill, knowledge, loyalty, enthusiasm and goodwill of those whom it employs, and those with whom it does business."[9] Stewart gave the Marlow lecture for 1972-1973, titled "Redundancy - the Scrap Heap or a New Job Opportunity?"[5]

A keen golfer (later captain of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, 1972-1973),[10] Stewart was a golfing partner with actor Sean Connery,[11] a connection which led to the latter directing and presenting his own film,[12] The Bowler and the Bunnet in 1967.[13][14][12] The film described the Fairfield Experiment, a new approach to industrial relations carried out at the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Glasgow during the 1960s, initiated by Stewart, and supported by George Brown, the First Secretary in Harold Wilson's cabinet, in 1966.[15][16] The company was facing closure, and Brown agreed to provide £1 million to enable trade unions, the management and the shareholders to try out new ways of industrial management.[17][18] As Fairfield (Glasgow) Ltd, the first ship delivered was a bulk carrier named Atlantic City, in February 1967, when Stewart said the Fairfield experiment was working as a proving ground for industrial relations.[19]

Stewart was knighted in the 1968 Birthday Honours.[20] In April 1975, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Strathclyde.[21]

He served as a director of Eagle Star Insurance, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Radio Clyde and Scottish Television and retired as deputy chairman of Scotland-based British Caledonian Airways in 1985.[22]