Arthur Balfour, 1st Baron Riverdale

Not to be confused with the British Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour.

Sir Arthur A. Balfour, 1925

Arthur Balfour, 1st Baron Riverdale, GBE, JP (9 January 1873 – 7 July 1957), known as Sir Arthur Balfour (1923 -1929) and Sir Arthur Balfour, 1st Baronet (1929 - 1935), was a British steel manufacturer.[1]

Balfour was the son of Herbert Balfour. Educated at Aysgarth School and Oundle School,[2] he was Chairman of Arthur Balfour & Co Ltd and of C Meadows & Co Ltd, both of Sheffield, Yorkshire. He also served as President of the Association of British Chambers of Commerce from 1923 to 1924 and of the British Council from 1947 to 1950 and as Chairman of the Advisory Council for Scientific and Industrial Research from 1937 to 1957.[3] He chaired the Committee on Industry and Trade from 1924 to 1928.[4]

In 1935 he was appointed as the chairman of the Departmental Committee on Fire Brigade Services, which became known as the Riverdale Committee. The committee's report resulted in the Fire Brigades Act 1938 (1 & 2 Geo. 6. c. 72).[5][6]

Balfour married Frances Josephine Bingham, daughter of Charles Henry Bingham, in 1899. He died in July 1957, aged 84, and was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son Robert. Lady Riverdale died in 1960. He was a freemason and founding member of University Lodge Sheffield 3911.[7]

  1. ^ Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. pp. 3351–3352. ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
  2. ^ "Balfour, Arthur, first Baron Riverdale (1873–1957), steel maker and industrialist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/30552. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ Burke's genealogical and heraldic history of the peerage, baronetage, and knightage, Privy Council, and order of preference (99 ed.). London: Burke's Peerage Limited. 1949. p. 1700.
  4. ^ John Ramsden (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Twentieth Century British Politics (Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 39–40.
  5. ^ Ewen, Shane (2009). Fighting Fires: Creating the British Fire Service, 1800–1978. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 125. ISBN 9780230248403.
  6. ^ "Catalogue record: COMMISSIONS, COMMITTEES AND CONFERENCES: Departmental Committee on Fire Brigade Services 1935 (The Riverdale Committee): signed report". National Archives. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  7. ^ Douglas Knoop, University Lodge Sheffield 3911 1919–1945, p. 14.