Michael Barker Nairn

Sir Michael Barker Nairn, 1st Baronet (born May 29, 1838 , probably in Kirkcaldy , † November 24, 1915 in Kirkcaldy), was a Scottish businessman and producer of cotton fabrics and floor coverings .

life and work

Former St Mary's Cotton Mills Michael Nairn & Co Ltd, Kirkcaldy

Michael Barker Nairn was the son of Michael Nairn (1804-1858) and his wife Catharine (1815-1891), the daughter of Alexander Ingram of Kirkcaldy. He was probably born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, in 1838 , where his father ran a cotton weaving mill that he later expanded into a production facility for oilcloths and other floor coverings. He was trained at Kirkcaldy and became a lawyer and notary in 1855. After his father's death in 1858, however, he moved to his company and in 1861 became a partner of his mother and his older brother Robert in the company's management. In 1866 he married Emily Frances († 1939), the daughter of Alfred Rimington Spencer of Weybridge, with whom he had three sons and eight daughters. Within a short time he became the driving force behind the company and was responsible for its rapid growth in the 1860s. Together with the engineer John Wright, he developed a process in which the drying process of the oilcloth could be greatly accelerated by using steam, and in 1869 he opened another cotton factory with highly developed looms .

In 1867, Nairn hired interior decorator and author Owen Jones ( The Grammar of Ornament , 1856) as a designer for the Paris Universal Exhibition, where Nairn's oil towels were recognized as the most magnificent ever produced. Subsequently he supplied most of the noble houses in Europe with his products. He also expanded his production to include other products, including waterproof coach roofs, stair covers and bath mats, and tablecloths were added in 1868. In 1873 Nairn opened a department store in London , others followed in Paris , Manchester and Glasgow .

1863, the British inventor invented Frederick Walton , the linoleum and he built the following year in Staines his Linoleum Manufacturing Company , which also Nairns represented due to the success of this product quickly expanded through its advantages over traditional flooring and a large competition. In 1877 the patents for linoleum expired and in 1878 the British High Court ruled that the brand name was not protected; Linoleum became the name of the material, rather than the branded product, of Walton's company. Several leading floor covering manufacturers are now using the opportunity to also manufacture linoleum and benefit from the material's rapid market growth. Among these were Michael Barker Nairn and James Williamson in Lancaster . Nairn built his own linoleum factory in Kirkcaldy and developed the material further. In 1881 he was able to offer large linoleum surfaces without seams and in 1895, like Walton, he produced linoleum with an inlay technique that made multi-colored designs possible. His linoleum was sold worldwide and in 1888 Nairn opened his first linoleum factory in the USA in Kearny , New Jersey, and in the 1890s in Choisy-le-Roi near Paris and in Bietigheim near Stuttgart . Nairn or members of his family and Scots from his company were integrated into all of these companies.

In 1893 the company became a corporation in which Michael Barker Nairn became managing director and director of management. He resigned the leadership of the management in 1909, but remained managing director until his death in 1915.

Political and social engagement

In addition to his life as a businessman, Nairn also took part in political and social life in his homeland. As a financier, he had the Kirkcaldy hospital built in 1890 and the new university buildings built in 1894. He donated the land for the YMCA building opened in 1894 and the Queen's Nurses' Home built in 1897. He was a member of the Free Church in Kirkcaldy and donated to St. Brycedale Free Church, built in 1881. Here he was an elder from 1881 to 1910. In 1900 Nairn took part unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Liberal Unionists in the general election in Kirkcaldy. On December 16, 1904, he received the hereditary title of Baronet , of Rankeilour, in the Parish of Collessie, and of Dysart House, in the Parish of Dysart, both in the County of Fife .

Michael Barker Nairn died on November 24, 1915 in his hometown and left his heirs with Michael Nairn & Co., the largest linoleum and flooring company in Scotland. He was buried in the Monimail cemetery on November 27 of that year.

literature

• Anne Pimlott Baker: Nairn, Sir Michael Barker, first baronet (1838-1915). In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004. ( Online, access required )

Web links

• Sir Michael Barker Nairn of Rankeilour, 1st Bt. On thepeerage.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The London Gazette : No. 27744, p. 8634 , December 16, 1904.

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Baronet (of Rankeilour and Dysart House) 1904–1915	Michael Nairn