James Aratoon Malcolm, born 11 November 1866 in Bushire on the Persian Gulf, was a British-Iranian Armenian financier, arms dealer and journalist.[1] He was granted a British Certificate of Naturalization on 7 September 1907, which cited his name as "James Aratoon Malcolm Bagration" and his address as the Hotel Russell, Russell Square, London. He died in London on 18 July 1952.
In early 1916, he was appointed by George V of Armenia as one of the five members of the Armenian National Delegation to lead negotiations during and after the war, and the effective representative in London (the other four members were all based in Paris).[2]
He was Chairman of the Royal Thames Yacht Club, and a founder in 1894 of the British Empire League.[1] In 1907 he was co-founder of the Veterans Club at Hand Court, High Holborn. The club`s title was later changed to the Allenby Services Club and later to the Victory Ex-Services Club. In 1952 this club (of which he was honorary treasurer) had premises at 73-79 Seymour Street, Marble Arch and had over 18,600 members. He was also a co-founder of the United Services Corps.[3] He was awarded an OBE in 1948. In 1929 the King of the Belgians had conferred on him the Order of Leopold, for his services to the Allies during the First World War.[4]
Sir Herbert Samuel referred to him as “The actual initiator of the Balfour Declaration”, in the British Palestine Mandate.
Early life
editHe was the son of Aratoon Malcolm, of Bushehr in Qajar Persia, whose family had lived in Persia "since before Elizabethan days", in shipping and commerce, having acted as treasurers to British Missions to the Shah of Persia.[2] They had numerous contacts with significant financial families in the region such as that of David Sassoon.[2]
He came to England at the age of 13 years old in 1881, for his education, under the guardianship of Albert Sassoon.[2] As a boy he was friends with Albert Goldsmid.[2] He was educated at the private Herne House School in Margate, Kent, before attending Balliol College, Oxford between 1886-9.[1]
Journalism
editAfter leaving university, he published a political-financial newspaper in London. This was titled "The Financial Standard and Imperial Post". An action for libel arising from what his newspaper had published regarding "the Barker case" resulted in a verdict against him, with damages set at 2000 pounds.[5] That then led to his being adjudicated bankrupt on 29 March 1893.[6][7] He later became one of the founders and editors of the Hayastan Daily during the Armenian resistance during the Armenian Genocide.[1]
Arms dealing
editHis arms dealing career began with making the first offer to provide 1,000 sharpshooters for service in Southern Africa, and he fitted out Major Albert Gybbon Spilsbury's Tourmaline yacht for its controversial 1897 expedition to Mogador, Morocco.[1][8]
Financing activities
editAs a contractor for public works he proposed to finance the Baku aqueduct, the longest water conduit in Europe which was ultimately financed by Zeynalabdin Taghiyev, the extensions to the London Docks, and the Canadian Trent–Severn Waterway.[1] He was chairman and managing director of the British company "The Improved Construction Company Ltd." which had the contract to supply the 110 miles of concrete pipes for the Baku aqueduct project.[9]
In 1912 he negotiated on behalf of the Chinese government the £5 million Crisp loan led by Charles Birch Crisp to the new Republic of China.[1]
He was the Secretary of the "Montreal Ottawa and Georgian Bay Canal (British Claims) Trust" which was registered as a British limited liability company on 21 April 1928.[10]
Publications
edit- Partition of Palestine. Suggested alterations in proposed frontiers (Mar 1938), Apollo Press, London
- Origins of the Balfour Declaration: Dr. Weizmann's Contribution (1944), British Museum
- "An Armenian`s Cry for Armenia", Nineteenth Century, Volume 28, Issue 164 (October 1890), pp.640-647
Further reading
edit- Halabian, Martin H. (1962), The Zionism of James A. Malcolm, Armenian patriot, MSc Other Thesis, Brandeis University, Dept. of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g Edward Hilliard, Ed., Balliol College Register 1832-1914, page 220
- ^ a b c d e Malcolm, 1944, p.1-3
- ^ The Times, 14 August 1952,, p.6.
- ^ The Daily Mirror, 15 January 1929, p.13.
- ^ The Times, 25 January 1893, p.13; and 26 January 1893, p.3.
- ^ "The 'Financial Standard' Failure". The Financial Times: 3. 24 March 1893.
- ^ Unsigned (7 April 1893). "The Bankruptcy Acts". The London Gazette (26390): 2154.
- ^ For further details of the expedition, see Spilsbury's Tourmaline Expedition (1906), summarized at http://gibraltar-intro.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/1898-tourmaline-expedition-major.html
- ^ Unsigned (25 May 1912). "Water For a Great Oil City: Building the Longest Conduit in Europe". Illustrated London News. 140 (3814): xxviii.
- ^ The Financial Times, 24 April 1928, p.2.