Sir Harold Paton Mitchell, 1st Baronet (21 May 1900 – 8 April 1983) was a politician, British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 peer and businessman. He was born in Carnock

Carnock

Carnock is a village located in Fife, Scotland, approximately northwest of Dunfermline and 1 mile east of Oakley, Fife. The village is said to be named for St. Cearnock, a disciple of St. Ninian...

, Fife

Fife

Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...

, UK, the eldest son of Alexander Mitchell (Scottish entrepreneur)

Alexander Mitchell (Scottish entrepreneur)

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Mitchell, TD, JP was a British entrepreneur.He was born at River Devon, Clackmannanshire, the second son of Alexander Mitchell and Emma Pearce...

 and Meta Mary Graham Paton.

Public life and baronetage

He also served as a member of the British House of Commons

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

 for the constituency of Brentford and Chiswick

Brentford and Chiswick (UK Parliament constituency)

Brentford and Chiswick was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Brentford and Chiswick districts of west London. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....

 from 1931 to 1945.

He was created a baronet

Baronet

A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...

 in 1945 (1st Baronet Mitchell of Tulliallan) and was Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 under Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

.

In the 1920s he was a member of Clackmannan Union Agricultural Society (vice-president from 1927).

Interests

He was an accomplished downhill skier (he published a book on the subject in 1931), one of his many leisure activities. He set up a pipe band competition in Alloa in the early 1930s.

He became Joint Master of the Lauderdale Hunt (Roxburghshire

Roxburghshire

Roxburghshire or the County of Roxburgh is a registration county of Scotland. It borders Dumfries to the west, Selkirk to the north-west, and Berwick to the north. To the south-east it borders Cumbria and Northumberland in England.It was named after the Royal Burgh of Roxburgh...

) with his brother Alex on the death of their father in 1934. He maintained a stable of show horses before World War 2.
In later life he became a lecturer and author on Caribbean subjects and wrote several books including two on Caribbean economics and politics in 1967.

Military service

When World War Two broke out he served as a Liaison Officer with the Polish Army, then commanded the Welfare Office for the Anti-Aircraft Command.

He was Honourary Colonel of the Scottish based 61 Signal Regiment TAVR

61 (City of Edinburgh) Signal Regiment

61st Signal Regiment was from 1939-67 a communications regiment of the British Army, part of the Royal Signals.-61st Signal Regiment:In 1939 orders were issued for 3rd Anti-Aircraft Divisional Signals TA to be raised in Edinburgh and Glasgow, as part of Anti-Aircraft Command, and in 1940-41 the...

 in 1963.

Business Life

He was a director of a number of companies-

• London and North Eastern Railway Company,
• The New Zealand and Australian Land Company Ltd;
• The Ben Line Steamers (from 1925),
• The Alloa Glass Works Company (from 1928),
• The Stirling Brickworks (chairman),
• The New Main Brick Works Ltd. (from 1938) and
• The Alloa Coal Company
  Alloa Coal Company
  The Alloa Coal Company was founded as a partnership in 1835 between William Mitchell, John Moubray, John Craich and David Ramsay. The partners obtained a lease to mine coal and ironstone on the lands of the Earl of Mar in Clackmannanshire...
  
   (from 1926).

In 1920 he invested in and turned round the failing Mountain Park Coal Company in Canada. This company formed the core of the later Mitchell controlled company Luscar.

He was an investor in the Globe and Phoenix Gold Mining Company Ltd. in Southern Africa. He had extensive mining interests in Canada and the United States (Luscar).

He left the United Kingdom after his mines and a railway he owned were nationalised after the Second World War circum 1947 and subsequently he refused to keep any of his money in there.

Residences

He purchased Tulliallan Castle

Tulliallan Castle

Tulliallan Castle is a large house in Kincardine, Fife, Scotland.It is the second structure to have the name , and is a mixture of Gothic and Italian style architecture set amid some of parkland just north of where the Kincardine Bridge spans the Firth of Forth...

 in 1923 from the estate of Sir James Sivewright (and sold it to the Scottish Home Department in 1950 for £9,100). He invested money in a game farm and afforestation projects on the estate.

He had a number of estates in Bermuda (his main residency in his later years), Jamaica, Honduras, Portugal, Fiji, Brazil and Guatemala.

Legacy

A foundation was set up with his money after his death. It funded various projects including renovation of Tulliallan Graveyard in Fife

Fife

Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...

 close to where he had once lived and possibly a donation to University of St Andrews

University of St Andrews

The University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...

(there is a building named the Sir Harold Mitchell Building, housing part of the School of Biology).

Family life

He married a Mary Pringle in 1947.
They had one daughter Mary Jean.