Noel Lister (26 December 1927 – 29 January 2015) was the founder of MFI which became one of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

's largest retail chains, and also the founder of UKSA (formerly the UK Sailing Academy), a youth education and maritime training charity based in

Cowes Cowes () is an England, English port, seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina, facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east bank. The two towns are linked b ...

on the Isle of Wight.

Career

Noel Lister initially went into business trading in war surplus goods which he purchased at auction. He co-founded MFI in 1964. He was a keen sailor - he was a contender for the

Admiral's Cup The Admiral's Cup is an international yachting regatta. For many years it was known as the unofficial world championship of offshore racing. The Admiral's Cup regatta was started in 1957 and was normally a biennial event (occurring in odd-number ...

in ''Imp'' - and in 1987 secured the future of the ''UK Sailing Academy'' at

by acquiring it from the

Sports Council Sport England is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Its role is to build the foundations of a community sport system by working with national governing bodies of sport, and other funded partners, ...

and transferring it, and a donation of £4 million, into a Trust Fund. At the time he owned the

yacht A yacht () is a sail- or marine propulsion, motor-propelled watercraft made for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a ...

, ''Whirlwind IX'', and his vision was to provide

maritime Maritime may refer to: Geography * Maritime Alps, a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps * Maritime Region, a region in Togo * Maritime Southeast Asia * The Maritimes, the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Princ ...

training for good quality people so that they could work on large

s. He died on 29 January 2015. His children included the conservationist and philanthropist Paul Lister.

References

External links

Sunday Times Rich List 2009
1927 births 2015 deaths 20th-century English businesspeople {{UK-business-bio-1920s-stub