How Eddie Stobart steered his family through heartbreak and scandals to help turn his small Cumbrian business into Britain's most iconic haulage firm
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He was the trucking tycoon who founded Britain's best known haulage dynasties and steered his family onto a road of lavish wealth, rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous while his grandson married a glamorous influencer. But Eddie Pears Stobart - the man behind the Eddie Stobart lorry firm - faced a life of tragedy, heartbreak and scandal as he sought to keep the wheels on his family's multimillion-pound business.
![[Eddie's millionaire son, William Stobart, is seen at Royal Ascot held at Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire in 2013 with Clare Burrell (his then partner)]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/16/93281633-14206093-image-a-1_1734540551325.jpg)
From his son, William, enraging locals by allegedly allowing rich clientele and Premier League footballers to fly helicopters from his sprawling Cheshire estate, to the bankruptcy and early death of his other boy, Edward. Credited with overhauling the face of Britain's logistics industry with his famed Brunswick green and Post Office red transporters, businessman Eddie has since died, aged 95.
![[Glamourous influencer Ashley Stobart is also now part of the family, marrying Ed Stobart, the son of William]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/17/93281655-14206093-Glamourous_influencer_Ashley_Stobart_is_also_now_part_of_the_fam-a-1_1734543626119.jpg)
Born in 1929 in Cumbria, he founded Eddie Stobart in 1946 as Britain was recovering from the horrors of the Second World War. Initially it started by transporting fertiliser. However, it was his second-youngest son, Edward who turned the business into a multimillion-pound haulage juggernaut after taking it over in 1973, aged 21.
![[Eddie's (left) second-youngest child Edward Stobart (right) - so-called to distinguish him from his father - who took over the company in the 1970s and made it into a household name. He tragically died in 2011 from a suspected heart attack]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/16/93268307-14206093-Eddie_s_left_second_youngest_child_Edward_Stobart_right_so_calle-a-3_1734540597101.jpg)
But despite making the company a household name, Edward was blighted by financial woes behind the scene, filing for bankruptcy in 2010. When he died in March 2011, aged 56, it was revealed he was £220,000 in debt. Edward ran the firm for 30 years but had cut his ties with it by the time of his fatal heart attack. He died with his wife, Mandy, and two of his six children at his bedside.
![[Eddie Stobart, centre, arrives for the funeral of his son, Edward Stobart, with his wife Noram Boyd]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/16/93268309-14206093-Eddie_Stobart_centre_arrives_for_the_funeral_of_his_son_Edward_S-a-5_1734540764616.jpg)
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