Hilary Weston

Hilary Mary Weston Template:Post-nominals (Template:Nee Frayne; January 12, 1942 – August 2, 2025) was an Irish–Canadian business mogul and writer who served as the 26th lieutenant-governor of Ontario from 1997 to 2002. During her five-year tenure, Weston focused on issues related to women, volunteerism and young people, drawing public attention to people working with the homeless, in hospices and as mentors to at-risk youth.

Biography

Early life

Hilary Mary Frayne was born on January 12, 1942, in Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin, Ireland.<ref name ="Legacy Obit"> Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Irish Examiner - Tributes after death"> Template:Cite news</ref> Her parents William and Noel Frayne raised her and her four siblings in Dublin.<ref name ="Legacy Obit"/> She was educated at Loreto Abbey, Dalkey.<ref name = "Irish Independent 2018 Article">Template:Cite news</ref> Her father died when she was 17, so she helped support her family by working as a fashion model before marrying Galen Weston in 1966.<ref name="OBIT - Globe and Mail">Template:Cite news</ref> They moved to Toronto in 1971, and she became a Canadian citizen.<ref name="OBIT - Irish Times">Template:Cite news</ref> They had two children, Alannah and Galen Jr., and four grandchildren – two girls with Alannah and her husband Alex Cochrane (an interior architect), and two boys with Galen and his wife Alexandra.<ref name=Alannah>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name ="Writers Trust">Template:Cite press release</ref>

Business career

Weston spent over two decades working in business and the fashion industry. As deputy chair of Holt Renfrew, she promoted Canadian design and merchandise.<ref name="OBIT - Canadian Press"> Template:Cite news</ref> During the same period, she also served as a director of Brown Thomas & Co. in Ireland.<ref name="OBIT - Irish Times" />

Lieutenant-governor of Ontario

Prime minister Jean Chretien appointed Weston as lieutenant-governor of Ontario on December 12, 1996.<ref name ="Lt.Gov. appointment"> Template:Cite news</ref> She was the second female to serve as Ontario's vice-regal, after Pauline Mills McGibbon was the first in 1974.<ref name="Lt.Gov. appointment" /> During her investiture ceremony, on January 24, 1997, she announced she would donate her $92,000 yearly salary to charity.<ref name ="Lt.Gov. Investiture">Template:Cite news</ref> Her focus, as the province's 26th vice-regal, was to help young people, improve the status of women and extol the virtues of volunteer work.<ref name ="Focus on Youth and Women">Template:Cite news</ref>

Charity work

In 1979, Weston founded the Ireland Fund of Canada, a non-partisan, non-denominational organization that funds community projects in Ireland to promote peace. She continued to serve as an honorary patron of the organization for the rest of her life.<ref name="OBIT - Irish Times" />

An interest in early childhood education led Weston to serve as founding chair of the Mabin School in Toronto.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> She also co-founded and chaired the Canadian Environment Educational Foundation,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and she established the Winter Garden Show at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Weston explored her longstanding interest in homes and gardens as co-author of two best-selling books, In a Canadian Garden (1989) and At Home in Canada (1995).<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref>

After her term as Lieutenant Governor, Weston spearheaded the most successful fundraising campaign in Canadian cultural history, which raised more than $250 million for the Royal Ontario Museum.<ref name=":0" /> She was patron of several organizations dealing with social issues, such as the Abbeyfield House Society, the Hospice Association of Ontario, the Yonge Street Mission,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the Landmine Survivors Network (later known as Survivor Corps), the Ontario March of Dimes<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> and the Prince's Trust Canada.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Weston also devoted a significant proportion of her time, as well as her business and fashion expertise, to Selfridges, the London department store of which she was a director.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Later life and death

Weston spent her later years in London, where she died on August 2, 2025.<ref name = "Extra Obit">Template:Cite news</ref> The Government of Ontario held a provincial memorial service on October 17, 2025 at St. Paul's, Bloor Street.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Honours

Weston in 2014, wearing her then-current miniature medals

As Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Weston automatically received the Order of Ontario (OOnt) in 1997,<ref name="OOnt">Template:Cite web</ref> and she served as ex officio Chancellor of the Order during her term in office.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She was also automatically invested as a Dame of Justice of the Venerable Order of St. John (DStJ) in 1997.<ref name=":1" />

Weston was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2003.<ref name="OC">Template:Canadian honour.</ref> She received the Canadian version of the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002, and automatically received the Canadian version of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours, she was made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order,<ref name="RVO2015">Template:Cite web</ref> in recognition of donations by the Galen Weston Foundation made to the College of St. George at Windsor Castle.

Ten post-secondary institutions recognized Weston with honorary degrees, including the University of Western Ontario,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Concordia University,<ref name=":1" /> University of St. Michael's College,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> University of Toronto, Massey College,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Trinity College, Dublin<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and University College Dublin.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2009, Weston received the President's Award at the YWCA Toronto Women of Distinction Awards, for modelling leadership in public and private life.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Ribbon bars

Ribbon	Description	Year	Notes
	Order of Canada (CM)	2003	Member<ref name="OC"/>
	Royal Victorian Order (CVO)	2015	Commander<ref name="RVO2015"/>
	Order of St. John (DStJ)	1997	Dame of Justice
	Order of Ontario (OOnt)	1997	Member<ref name="OOnt"/>
	Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal	2002	Canadian version
	Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal	2012	Canadian version
	King Charles III Coronation Medal	2025	Canadian version

References

<references/>

External links

• Template:Cite web