Sir Alexander MacRobert

Sir Alexander MacRobert was a self-made millionaire from Aberdeen. He came from a working-class background and left school when he was twelve to start his working life sweeping floors in Stoneywood Paper Mill; his education was continued by attending evening classes and he gained several qualifications as his early career progressed. At the beginning of 1884 MacRobert travelled to India to take up employment in a woollen mill in Cawnpore, or Kanpur as it is now known. By 1920 he had built up a portfolio of companies enabling him to found the British India Corporation. He was raised to a baronet at the beginning of 1922, choosing to be named Sir Alexander MacRobert of Cawnpore and Cromar of the County of Aberdeen.

MacRobert was born in Aberdeen on 21 May 1854; his father, John, was a farmer from a Drumblade family who had married Helen, a farmer's daughter from Banchory-Devenick. He left school when he was twelve and, like many other Aberdeen youngsters of the same age at that time, was employed at Stoneywood Paper Mill, initially sweeping floors. Evening classes provided the opportunity to continue his education and he studied a wide variety of subjects. He went on to gain qualifications at the Aberdeen Mechanics' Institute in seventeen disciplines including music theory, biology, history and psychology. Later he lectured part time at the institute in experimental physics. Always seeking to better himself, he also became interested in chemistry, becoming so proficient in the subject that he soon gave lectures on it at Robert Gordon's College. In the meantime, his position at the paper mill had elevated to office work; shortly he gained more responsibility after being promoted to a different section of the Stoneywood conglomerate but he still returned to undertake audits at the mill every three months.

During 1880 MacRobert undertook a trip to New Brunswick, Canada, to visit his parents and siblings – he had six sisters and a younger brother – who had emigrated and successfully become established as "pioneer farmers of the west." He took another unpaid leave of absence in 1881 to study compound pendulums at the South Kensington Museum.

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