John Mills McCallum

Sir John Mills McCallum (12 August 1847 – 10 January 1920) was a Scottish soap manufacturer and Liberal politician.

McCallum was born in Paisley the son of John McCallum who was originally from Kintyre and was a partner in a firm of dyers. McCallum attended Allan Glen's School in Glasgow to pursue studies in chemistry. In 1875, he married Miss Oates the daughter of a Grimsby Justice of the Peace. He lived in Paisley all his life.

McCallum followed his father into business and became a partner in the firm of Isdale and McCallum, soap manufacturers.

McCallum became a member of the Paisley Town Council in 1899. He was magistrate in the town and also served as a Justice of the Peace for Renfrew.

He was sometime president of the Scottish Liberal Association and took a prominent part in the promotion of the Paisley Liberal Club, despite being a teetotaller and a temperance campaigner.

McCallum was identified as a supporter of the great Liberal prime minister William Ewart Gladstone, particularly on the issue of Irish Home Rule. He also seems to have favoured greater devolution to Scotland itself, attending meetings of the Scottish Home Rule Association. Despite being an industrialist he was in that tradition of Liberal politicians supporting radical causes. He was a supporter of the Paisley Tenants’ Protection Association (PTPA) set up in 1902 and formed to campaign against the missive system, underpinning Scottish property transactions, and against rent increases. The PTPA became a broader radical campaigning body, diversifying from just housing questions into a forum for supporting wider social change. Indeed, McCallum developed into a strong advocate of social and labour reform, very much identified with the New Liberal agenda of social legislation enacted principally after 1908.

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