A Financial Times columnist for more than 20 years, he contributed to a range of publications, from The Guardian and the Times to magazines such as the Illustrated London News, Shooting Times and Lancashire Life.
In the 1970s, he was editor of TAB, the British tyre industry’s business magazine and European editor of the U.S. publication Modern Tire Dealer. That experience made him the country’s leading writer on "the black round things that keep you on the road," as an FT colleague put it.
Wartime service in the RAF gave Stuart an important engineering grounding and led to meeting up with his wife, Cherie, then a Land Girl. Newspaper experience in west London was followed by a public relations appointment with Benson Advertising.
His involvement with TAB followed, plus freelance journalism culminating in his Financial Times appointment. He remained an occasional contributor to the Weekend FT for some time after his formal retirement in the late 1990s. He was made a life member of the Guild of Motoring Writers in 2001, having been a member for more than 50 years, several of them on the committee.
Until latterly, he was a keen horseman, and golf was a more recent enthusiasm, shared with his wife, which made him further friends in his home area of Tunbridge Wells. He is survived by Cherie, his daughter, Gilly, and two grandchildren.
