Sir Douglas Alexander
Bt
6th President of the Singer Manufacturing Company
In office
1905–1949
Preceded byFrederick Gilbert Bourne
Succeeded byMilton C. Lightner
Personal details
Born(1864-07-04)4 July 1864
Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died22 May 1949(1949-05-22) (aged 84)
Stamford, Connecticut, United States
Spouse
Helen Hamilton Gillespie
​
​
(m. 1892; died 1923)​
Children4
Alma materHamilton Collegiate Institute
OccupationLawyer, executive

Sir Douglas Alexander, 1st Baronet (4 July 1864 – 22 May 1949[1]) was a British-born Canadian industrialist.

Early life

Alexander was born in Halifax, Yorkshire, on 4 July 1864. He was the son of Andrew Alexander, a horticulturist and botanist. His parents emigrated to Canada when he was a child and he was brought up in Hamilton, Ontario.[1]

He was educated at the Hamilton Collegiate Institute and called to the bar in 1886.[1]

Career

After practising for a few years in Hamilton, he joined the Singer Manufacturing Company as a clerk in 1891, where he was to stay for the rest of his career. In 1896, he was appointed to the board and moved to New York City. In 1905, he succeeded Frederick Gilbert Bourne to become the sixth president, holding the position until his death forty-four years later.[2]

Alexander was created a baronet of Edgehill, near Stamford, Connecticut,[3] on 2 July 1921,[4] by King George V in the 1921 Birthday Honours for his services to the welfare of industrial workers during World War I.[5]

Personal life

In 1892, Alexander was married to Helen Hamilton Gillespie (1864–1923), the daughter of George Hamilton Gillespie and Elizabeth Agnes Gillespie.[6] Together, they were the parents of:[1]

  • Elizabeth Agnes Alexander (1895–1944), who died unmarried.
  • Helen Douglas Alexander (1897–1984), who became an artist and did not marry.[7]
  • Sir Douglas Hamilton Alexander, 2nd Baronet (1900–1983), a 1921 graduate of Princeton University who did not marry and lived with his sister Helen.[7]
  • Archibald Gillespie Alexander (1907–1978),[8] who became a Lieutenant commander in the United States Coast Guard during World War II. He married Margery Isabel Griffith, daughter of Arthur Brown Griffith.

Lady Alexander died on 19 March 1923 at The Dakota, their New York City residence at 1 West 72nd Street, and her funeral was thereafter held at Hamilton, Ontario. In October 1925, an armed robber broke into the Alexander residence on Palmer Road in Stamford, Connecticut, pushing his daughter Agnes down, slashing his son Douglas, and stealing $81.[9]

Sir Douglas died at the Stamford Hospital on 22 May 1949.[1] After a funeral held at St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church in Stamford, he was buried alongside his wife in Hamilton, Ontario.[1] In his will he left his entire estate to his eldest son and no provision for his daughter and son Archibald, "for the reason that they are otherwise amply provided for."[10] After his death, the family sold the 22 acre Connecticut estate, the home was torn down and, in the early 1990s, a retirement community was built there.[11][12]

Descendants

Through his second son Archibald, he was the grandfather of Sir Douglas Alexander, 3rd Baronet (b. 1936), who became the third baronet in 1983 upon the death of his uncle, the second baronet. The third baronet married Marylon Scatterday, daughter of Leonidas Collins Scatterday, in 1958.[13][14] His two other grandchildren were Archibald Bonsall Alexander (b. 1940)[15] and Margery Griffith Alexander (b. 1945).[16]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "SIR D. ALEXANDER, SINGER FIRM HEAD; President for 44 Years !s Dead in Stamford at 84 Made Baronet for War Work" (PDF). The New York Times. 23 May 1949. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  2. ↑ "SINGER COMPANY EARNS $8,758,851; Sir Douglas Alexander, Head of Concern, Reports on Its Operations for 1940 $9.73 FOR CAPITAL SHARE Net Compares With Profit of $3,065,105 for 1939 -- Rise After War Foreseen" (PDF). The New York Times. 18 September 1941. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  3. ↑ Liebenson, Bess (17 April 1988). "Historical Society Displays Its Diversity". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  4. ↑ "Douglas Alexander Made a Baronet" (PDF). The New York Times. 10 June 1921. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  5. ↑ "No. 32346". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 June 1921. p. 4530.
  6. ↑ "LADY ALEXANDER DEAD.; Wife of Sir Douglas Alexander Dies I at Their Home Here. I" (PDF). The New York Times. 20 March 1923. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  7. 1 2 "Princeton Alumni Weekly". Princeton Alumni Weekly: 35. 27 February 1984. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  8. ↑ "Deaths | ALEXANDER--Archibald G." (PDF). The New York Times. 4 April 1978. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  9. ↑ "STAMFORD BURGLAR SURPRISED IN VILLA; Slashes at Son of Sir Douglas Alexander and Escapes After 20-Foot Leap From Girl's Room" (PDF). The New York Times. 12 October 1925. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  10. ↑ "ALEXANDER WILL FILED; Singer Company Head Leaves Entire Estate to Son" (PDF). The New York Times. 14 June 1949. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  11. ↑ Selditch, Dianne (19 January 1992). "Stamford Welcomes Retirement Complex". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  12. ↑ Cowan, Alison Leigh (28 September 2003). "At a Whimsical, Turreted Suburban Castle, Condominiums Are at the Gate". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  13. ↑ "Miss Scatterday, A Vassar Senior, To Be Married; Ohio Girl Betrothed to Douglas Alexander 2d, Senior at Hamilton" (PDF). The New York Times. 27 April 1958. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  14. ↑ Dublin, Ohio (12 February 2015). "Mary Elizabeth Scatterday, 1909-1998". worthingtonmemory.org. Worthington Memory. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  15. ↑ "Catherine Biggins Wed To Archibald Alexander". The New York Times. 2 April 1967. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  16. ↑ Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003.
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