Alexander Balfour (2 September 1824 – 16 April 1886) was a Scottish merchant and founder of the Liverpool shipping company Balfour Williamson.[1]
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Early life
editBalfour was born in Leven, Fife, as the eldest of three sons of Henry Balfour (1796–1854), a foundry owner, and his wife, Agnes Bisset (1804–1881).
Biography
editHe was educated at the High School of Dundee and St Andrews University, and in 1844 moved to Liverpool, where in 1851 he founded Balfour Williamson with Stephen Williamson and David Duncan.
He was a committed philanthropist, and founded the Duke Street Home, to provide better conditions for sailors, and orphanages for seamen's children.
He co-founded Edge Hill University (then Edge Hill College) in 1885, the first non-denominational teacher training college for women in England. There is a Halls of Residence called Balfour in his honour.[2]
He bought a country estate at Mount Alyn, at Rossett, south of Chester. He died there in 1886. Alexander is buried at Christchurch Cemetery, Rossett, Wrexham which is near to his former home. [1]
There is a statue of him by Albert Bruce-Joy in St John's Gardens, Liverpool.[3]
Personal life
editHe was married to Janet Roxburgh (1844–1923), daughter of John Roxburgh. Their offspring were:
- Katherine Gray Balfour (18 January 1865 - 8 August 1865)
- Agatha Agate Henrietta Balfour (1866-1958); married Diarmid Noel Paton, son of Sir Joseph Noel Paton; had issue
- Alexander Balfour (1870–1876), died in infancy
- Frederick Robert Stephen Balfour (1873–1945); married Gertrude Collet Norman (1878–1970) and had issue[4]
- Ernest Roxburgh Balfour (1874–1897)
- Vera Balfour (1878–1965); married Major Angus Mathieson Stewart, M.B.E.; had issue
- Margaret Balfour (1881–1967); married firstly Thomas Arthur Nelson. After his death in 1917, she married the artist Paul Lucien Maze (1887–1979).[5][6]
- Archibald Balfour (1883–1958); married firstly to Pearl Isabel Alice Price (1882–1952). He married secondly to Lilian Helen Cooper (d. 1989). He had issue from both marriages. Among them is Neil Roxburgh Balfour, former husband of Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia and husband of Serena Mary Spencer-Churchill Russell (b. 1944), daughter of Edwin F. Russell, granddaughter of John Spencer-Churchill, 10th Duke of Marlborough and a relative of Winston Churchill.[7]
References
edit- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Methil Heritage website
- ^ Robert Henry Lundie (1889). Alexander Balfour – A Memoir. J. Nisbet.
- ^ Living on Campus | Accommodation | Undergraduate | Edge Hill University Archived 15 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Edgehill.ac.uk. Retrieved on 2014-06-17.
- ^ Alexander Balfour by Albert Bruce-Joy, The Victorian Web, retrieved 1 January 2012
- ^ "Catalogue | the Catalogue | Balfour of Dawyk, MRS Frederick, née Gertrude Norman | the de Laszlo Archive Trust".
- ^ "Alexander Balfour, of Liverpool". www.geni.com. 17 October 2022.
- ^ "Catalogue | the Catalogue | Maze, MRS Paul, née Margaret Balfour; other married name MRS Thomas A. Nelson | the de Laszlo Archive Trust".
- ^ "Serena Mary Churchill Russell: Genealogics".
