Jimi Heselden

Jimi Heselden OBE
Born	James William Heselden (1948-03-27)27 March 1948 Halton Moor, Leeds, United Kingdom
Died	Thorp Arch, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Cause of death	Accidental fall off a cliff while riding a segway
Residence	Leeds, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Entrepreneur
Years active	c.1985-2010
Known for	Chairman of Hesco Bastion Ltd
Net worth	£340m
Awards	Officer of the Order of the British Empire

File:Hesco.jpg

Soldiers assembling HESCO bastions.

James William "Jimi" Heselden OBE (27 March 1948 – 26 September 2010) was a British entrepreneur. A former coal miner, Heselden made his fortune manufacturing the Hesco bastion barrier system. In 2010, he bought Segway Inc., maker of the Segway personal transport system. Heselden died in 2010 from injuries apparently sustained falling from a cliff while riding his own product. His estate, bequeathed to his widow and family, was worth over £340 million and he was ranked in the top 400 members of the Sunday Times Rich List.

Early life

Heselden grew up in the Halton Moor district of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. At the age of 15, Heselden left Osmondthorpe Secondary Modern School to work as a labourer and then at collieries in Temple Newsam and Lofthouse. He lost his job in the wave of redundancies that followed the 1984–85 miners' strike and spent his redundancy money on renting a workshop and, at first, setting up a sandblasting business. He then worked on developing and patenting a collapsible wire mesh and fabric container, now called Hesco bastion, to be used for building flood management and to limit erosion.

Career

In 1989, Heselden founded Hesco Bastion Ltd to manufacture containers of the same name; filled with sand or earth, they quickly found favour with the armies of several countries, as they allowed effective blast walls, barriers and revetments to be quickly constructed. Made in Hesco's factory in Leeds, these were shipped (flat-packed) in great numbers to conflict zones, including Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as later being used for flood defences at New Orleans. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2006 Queen's Birthday Honours, "for services to the Defence industry and to Charity."

Philanthropy

In 2008, Heselden donated £1.5 million to the Help For Heroes fund through a charity auction bid for nine people to fly with the Red Arrows and, in the same year, set up the Hesco Bastion Fund in his home city with a £10 million donation to the Leeds Community Foundation. A further £3 million was added to the foundation in 2009 and an additional £10 million in 2010.

There are people out there who are making money and when times are good I honestly believe people have a moral obligation to use their wealth to help others.

— Jimi Heselden, September 2010

Death

At 11:40 a.m. on 26 September 2010, West Yorkshire Police received reports of a man falling 80 feet (24 m) or 42 feet (13 m) into the River Wharfe, at the village of Thorp Arch near Boston Spa, apparently having fallen from the cliffs above. The fall from a narrow footpath was witnessed by a man walking his dog nearby. A Segway vehicle was recovered and Heselden was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics. Investigators said, "At this time we do not believe the death to be suspicious" and were investigating as to "whether there was a fault with his particular machine or it was driver error".

On 4 October 2010, at an inquest at Leeds Coroner's Court, coroner David Hinchliff reported that a post-mortem examination had concluded that Heselden had suffered "multiple blunt force injuries of the chest and spine consistent with a fall whilst riding a gyrobike".

Recording a verdict of accidental death, West Yorkshire Coroner David Hinchliff told Heselden's family: "I think it's probable — I think typical of Jimi and the type of man he was — he held back and waited as an act of courtesy to allow Mr Christie (a dog walker) more room. In so doing, he's attempted to reverse the Segway back. As a result of that he's got into difficulty."

See also

• List of unusual deaths