Alec Horsley

Alec Stewart Horsley (1 September 1902 – 11 June 1993) was a British businessman and peace activist best known as the founder of Northern Foods, one of the United Kingdom’s largest food manufacturing companies.^[1]

Horsley was born in Ripley, Derbyshire, and educated at Worcester College, Oxford, where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics.^[1] After university, he briefly joined the Colonial Service before entering the family dairy-importing business in Hull.^[1]

In 1932, Horsley joined Pape & Co., a Hull-based condensed milk importer. He later established a milk-processing factory at Holme-on-Spalding-Moor in 1937.^[1]

In 1942, he registered the expanded dairy operations as Northern Dairies, which later became Northern Foods.^[1] Through acquisitions and diversification into chilled and prepared foods, the company grew into a major supplier to British retailers, including Marks & Spencer.^[2]

Northern Foods was later listed on the London Stock Exchange and became a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.^[3]

A lifelong Quaker, Horsley was active in peace movements and civic reform.^[1] During the 1940s, he became involved with the Common Wealth Party and later supported the anti-nuclear Committee of 100 movement.^[4]

He served as a city councillor in Hull between 1945 and 1949 and was appointed Sheriff of Kingston upon Hull in 1953.^[1]

Horsley married Susan Howitt in 1932; they had five children.^[1] He was the grandfather of the writer and artist Sebastian Horsley.^[1]

He died on 11 June 1993 in Hessle, East Yorkshire.^[1]

In 1982, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Hull in recognition of his contribution to business and civic life.^[1]