Sir Thomas Farmer (10 July 1940 – 9 May 2025) was a Scottish businessman who founded the

Kwik Fit Kwik Fit is a car servicing and repair company in the United Kingdom. As of , there are over six hundred Kwik Fit locations in the United Kingdom. Kwik Fit also has locations in continental Europe. History Tom Farmer opened the first Kwik Fi ...

chain of garages and owned the Scottish football club Hibernian. Sir Tom was

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

Queen Margaret University Queen Margaret University is a public university located wholly within the county of East Lothian on the outskirts of Musselburgh, Scotland. It is named after the Scottish Queen Saint Margaret (1045–1093). The university can trace its ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

from 2007 until 2015.

Early life

Farmer was born on 10 July 1940 in Leith, Edinburgh. One of seven siblings in a devoutly Catholic family, in 1964, Farmer founded his own tyre retailing business which he sold in 1969 for £450,000. Farmer retired to the United States, but became unsatisfied and decided to find a new venture, founding

in 1971.

Career

According to the ''

Sunday Times Rich List The ''Sunday Times Rich List'' is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families resident in the United Kingdom ranked by net wealth. The list is updated annually in April and has been published as a magazine supplement by British national ...

'' in 2020, Farmer was worth an estimated £126 million.

Kwik Fit

Farmer founded the

chain of garages in 1971. The firm grew quickly, mainly through acquisition, including opening in the Netherlands in 1975. Farmer was named Scottish Businessman of the Year in 1989. After building the chain to become the world's largest independent tyre and automotive repair specialists with over 2,000 centres operating in 18 different countries, Farmer sold the firm to

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

in 1999 for more than £1 billion. He was the first Scot to be awarded the Andrew Carnegie Medal for philanthropy.

Hibernian FC

Farmer owned 90% of Hibernian, a professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in Edinburgh, between the early 1990s and 2019. He invested nearly £3 million to rescue the club from receivership and he continued to fund developments of

Easter Road Easter Road is a football stadium located in the Leith area of Edinburgh, Scotland, which is the home ground of Scottish Premiership club Hibernian (Hibs). The stadium currently has an all-seated capacity of , which makes it the fifth-largest ...

and financial losses made by the club. Before his intervention, the club had been threatened during 1990 by an attempted takeover by Wallace Mercer, the owner of their

Edinburgh derby The Edinburgh derby is an informal title given to any association football, football match played between Football in Scotland, Scottish clubs Heart of Midlothian F.C., Heart of Midlothian (Hearts) and Hibernian F.C., Hibernian (Hibs), the two o ...

rivals Hearts. Farmer admitted in 2006 that he had no great love of football, and he rarely attended matches. He said that " efelt it was important to the local community that Hibs should continue to exist, as ewas informed by campaigners that isgrandfather had saved the club from bankruptcy approximately 100 years earlier." Farmer delegated control of Hibs to other figures, such as Rod Petrie. He sold the majority ownership of the club to American businessman Ron Gordon in July 2019.

Farmer Autocare

Four years after the sale of Kwik Fit, in 2003 Farmer went on to found another car tyre business in direct competition with his previous company. Using £80 million of the proceeds from the sale to Ford, he named the new venture "Tyres 'n' Wheels Autocare" with an initial three branches located in his native

. The company was later renamed "Farmer Autocare" and grew into 21 centres located across central

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Political activism

In 2006, Farmer donated £100,000 to the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

to help fund their campaign for the 2007 Scottish Parliament general election. Farmer commented at the time that it "was not an indication of ispolitical allegiance but that ewanted the SNP to be able to compete financially with their better-funded political opponents". Farmer repeated his endorsement for the SNP in the 2011 election.

Personal life and death

Farmer was married to Anne (née Scott) and lived in

. They had two children and four grandchildren. Lady Farmer died in 2023. Farmer also owned the island of

Inchkeith Inchmichael (Formerly Inchkeith) (from the ) is an island in the Firth of Forth, Scotland, administratively part of the Fife council area. In 2025, Newly appointed Independent Member of the Scottish Parliament in the Mid-Scotland and Fife ...

in the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is a firth in Scotland, an inlet of the North Sea that separates Fife to its north and Lothian to its south. Further inland, it becomes the estuary of the River Forth and several other rivers. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate ...

. Farmer died at his home in Edinburgh, on 9 May 2025, at the age of 84. His death was announced the following day by his family.

Awards and accolades

Farmer was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the

1990 Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours 1990 for the Commonwealth realms were announced on 15 June 1990, to celebrate the Queen's Birthday of 1990. The recipients of honours are displayed here as they were styled before their new honour, and arranged firstly by the ...

, and

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in the

1997 Birthday Honours The 1997 Birthday Honours were announced on 14 June 1997 for the United Kingdom and on 2 June 1997 for New Zealand.New Zealand list: Queen's Birthday Honours are announced on or around the date of the Monarch's Official Birthday in the United K ...

for services to the automotive industry. He was also appointed

Commander of the Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order () is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the monarch, members of the royal family, or to any viceroy or senior representative of the ...

(CVO) in the

2009 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2009 were announced on 31 December 2008 in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Barbados, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Christopher and Nevis,Saint Christopher. t ...

for his work as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the

Duke of Edinburgh's Award The Duke of Edinburgh's Award (commonly abbreviated DofE) is a youth awards programme founded in the United Kingdom in 1956 by the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, which has since expanded to 144 nations. The awards recognise adolescents and ...

. In March 1996, he was appointed as Deputy lieutenant (DL) of the City of Edinburgh. Farmer was made a

Knight Commander with Star of the Order of St. Gregory the Great The Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great (; ) was established on 1 September 1831, by Pope Gregory XVI, seven months after his election as Pope. The order is one of the five orders of knighthood of the Holy See. The honor is b ...

. He was appointed the founding

of Edinburgh’s

in 2007 taking over from

Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester (born Lady Alice Christabel Montagu Douglas Scott; 25 December 1901 – 29 October 2004) was a member of the British royal family. She was the wife of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, the third son of King ...

who had been the institution’s

Patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, art patronage refers to the support that princes, popes, and other wealthy and influential people ...

. Farmer served in that role until 2016.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Farmer, Tom 1940 births 2025 deaths 20th-century Scottish businesspeople 21st-century Scottish businesspeople Automotive businesspeople British businesspeople in transport British retail company founders Businesspeople awarded knighthoods Businesspeople from Edinburgh Chairmen and investors of football clubs in Scotland Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Ford people Hibernian F.C. directors and chairmen Knights Bachelor Knights Commander with Star of the Order of St. Gregory the Great Scottish company founders Scottish knights Scottish National Party donors Scottish philanthropists Scottish Roman Catholics People educated at St Augustine's High School, Edinburgh People from Leith